Light on Light Magazine - Our Moment of Choice 2020 Special Edition

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Our Moment of Choice EVOLUTIONARY VISIONS AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE Featuring 43 Evolutionary Leaders including Gregg Braden, Lynne McTaggart, Bruce H. Lipton, Jean Houston, Ervin Laszlo, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Jude Currivan, James O’Dea, Larry & Barbara Dossey, Eben Alexander, and Karen Newell plus 17 International Events!

THE CONVERGENCE Online Now!

Announcing 2 special broadcasts hosted by the Our Moment of Choice co-editors Bob Atkinson, Kurt Johnson, and Deborah Moldow, with Gregg Braden and Diane Williams of the Evolutionary Leaders and Rick Ulfik of We, the World and We.net available online at VoiceAmerica! Includes discussions with 25 Evolutionary Leader authors of Our Moment of Choice and discussion of the many events and initiatives featured in this special edition e-magazine presented by Light on Light.

New York Times Bestselling Authors Discuss OUR MOMENT OF CHOICE, a No. 1 at AMAZON

Jude Currivan

Gregg Braden

Lynne McTaggart

Eben Alexander

David Sloan Wilson

Jean Houston

Ervin Laszlo

John Perkins

Click here for VoiceAmerica Special Our Moment of Choice, Part 1 Click here for VoiceAmerica Special Our Moment of Choice, Part II

M A G A Z I N E Spiritual Practices & Inspired Lifestyle Special Edition

Our Moment of Choice Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future Guest Editors Diane Marie Williams, Rev. Deborah Moldow, Dr. Robert Atkinson, Dr. Kurt Johnson Host Editor Karuna Managing Editor Rev. Shannon Winters, MS Graphic Editor & Layout David Winters

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The Interspiritual Dialogue Network a member of the UNITY EARTH network

Excerpts from the book Our Moment of Choice are printed with the permission of Beyond Words, Atria Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.

Welcome We at Light on Light Magazine are dedicated to illuminating the light of wisdom and compassion of spiritual practices and inspiring lifestyle features for the flourishing of health, mind, and spirit every day.

Light on Light Magazine welcomes authors, spiritual teachers, and our readers, to contribute ideas and brief concepts for content in future issues. We welcome light-filled submissions of wisdom, inspiration, and transformation for feature articles, personal transformation stories, poetry, fictional short stories, music, artwork, #ShineYourLight inspirations, and more! Please send a brief description of your content or idea to editor@lightonlight.us for consideration.

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The opinions expressed in this issue do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or editors of Light on Light Magazine.

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Table of Contents

More from Healing Ourselves and the Planet

Welcomes

Excerpt from Chapter 18 – The Noble Future: Becoming Fully Human

by Gordon Dveirin and Joan Borysenko............................................................51

Welcome from the editors of Light on Light,

by Karuna, Shannon Winters, and Kurt Johnson................................................4

Excerpt from Chapter 20 – Conscious Evolution: A Theory We Can Thrive With

by Bruce H. Lipton.............................................................................................51

Welcome from the Source of Synergy Foundation host of The Evolutionary Leaders Circle

by Diane Marie Williams......................................................................................5

Excerpt from Chapter 21 – Is Wholeness Really a Choice?

by Deepak Chopra™.........................................................................................51

Welcome from the Evolutionary Leaders Circle

by Rev. Deborah Moldow.................................................................................6-7

Initiatives Mobilizing the Planet for Healing

OUR MOMENT OF CHOICE: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future, edited by Robert Atkinson, Kurt Johnson and Deborah Moldow

Being the Change by Terry Patten.....................................................................54

From the Publisher, BEYOND WORDS, Atria Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc......................................................................................................8 Introduction – The New Human Story: The Power to Thrive in Our Time of Extremes by Gregg Braden ............................................................8

CIRCLE ONE BRIDGE-BUILDING

Exploring The Many Dimensions of Peace through Spirit, Dialogue, Art, and Action by Julian Bailer and Anne-Marie Voorhoeve.....................................52-53 Spiritual Practices for Healing in this Unique Time

by Kurt Johnson and Denise Scotto.............................................................55-56 The Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns at the United Nations

by Cathy Towle..................................................................................................57 The Vistar Method for Healing and Peace

by Victoria and Ron Friedman...........................................................................57

The Great Map of Peace by James O’Dea.........................................................9

CIRCLE FIVE INTEGRATING SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY

More from Bridge-building

The Current Science of Awakening by Loch Kelly.............................................58

Excerpt from Chapter 2 – Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century: A Quiet Revolution by Reverend Deborah Moldow........................................................10

More from Integrating Science and Spirituality

Excerpt from Chapter 4 – Jamming: Cultivating Connection, Community, Collaboration, and Co-liberation by Shilpa Jain................................................10 Excerpt from Chapter 5 – Is World Peace Possible?

by Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith....................................................................10

Events and Initiatives on Peace and Community The 11 Days of Global Unity by Rick Ulfik and Angel Fullerton....................11-19 75th Anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings from Jonathan Granoff.......................................................................................20

Excerpt from Chapter 22 – The Power of Eight by Lynne McTaggart...............59 Excerpt from Chapter 24 – Awakening to Our Limitless Minds

by J.J. Hurtak and Desiree Hurtak....................................................................59 Excerpt from Chapter 26 – A WholeWorld View to Guide the Evolution of Consciousness by Jude Currivan......................................................................59

Events and Initiatives for Integrating Science and Spirituality Prosocial Spirituality: Where Evolutionary Science Meets Contemplative Inquiry

by Kate Sheehan Roach..............................................................................60-61

The Road to 2020—A Pilgrimage to Peace Weekend

by Ben Bowler..............................................................................................21-35

CIRCLE SIX NEW FRONTIERS BEYOND SPACE AND TIME

CIRCLE TWO RESTORING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE

More from New Frontiers Beyond Space and Time

Regenerating Earth and Her People by Daniel Christian Wahl, PhD................36

Excerpt from Chapter 28 – Liberating Human Potential

by Eben Alexander and Karen Newell...............................................................63

More from Restoring Ecological Balance

Humanity’s Change of Heart by Claudia Welss.................................................62

Excerpt from Chapter 8 – One Good Person by Constance Buffalo.................37

Excerpt from Chapter 30 – Dawn of the New Day

by Rev. Christian Sorensen...............................................................................63

Excerpt from Chapter 9 – Prophesies, Dynamic Change, and a New Global Civilization by Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr......................................................37

New Frontiers Events and Initiatives

Events and Initiatives Toward Restoring Ecological Balance Original Caretakers’ Ongoing Work for Sacred Sites

by Mindahi Bastida Muñoz...........................................................................38-39 Purpose Earth Fund by Purpose Earth........................................................40-41

What’s the UP Convergence 2020? What’s UP? by Jon Ramer..................64-65 The Conversation: Co-Creating a New Kind of Peace

by Light on Light, with Peter Melton..................................................................66 The Global Coherence Pulse — Creating Islands of Coherence

by Claudia Welss .........................................................................................67-68

CIRCLE THREE CONSCIOUS ENTERPRISE AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Triangles: World Service through the Power of Thought by Dot Maver.............68

The Dawn of a Conscious Business Movement by Steve Farrell......................42

CIRCLE SEVEN THE BIG PICTURE

More from Conscious Enterprise and Social Change

The Way of the Social Artist by Jean Houston..................................................69

Excerpt from Chapter 12 – Youth-Led Social Enterprise Projects

by Gino Pastori-Ng............................................................................................43

More from the Big Picture

Excerpt from Chapter 15 – Reinventing the Planet: A Bottom Up Grand Strategy by David Gershon...............................................................................43

Conscious Enterprise and Social Change Events and Initiatives The Conscious Business Synergy Circle of the Evolutionary Leaders

by The Circle................................................................................................44-45 Partnerism: The Future of Economics and Public Policy

by Riane Eisler..................................................................................................46 The Building the New World Summit

by Rev. Laura George, J.D. and Katherine Kennedy...................................47-49

CIRCLE FOUR HEALING OURSELVES AND THE PLANET Survival, Consciousness, and the One Mind

by Larry Dossey and Barbara Dossey...............................................................50

Excerpt from Chapter 35 – A Holistic Vision of Evolution and Consciousness

by Robert Atkinson............................................................................................70 Excerpt from Chapter 36 – Reasoning and Experiencing Our Way to Oneness

by Ervin Laszlo..................................................................................................70 Excerpt from Chapter 37 – A Synergistic Convergence of the Whole

by Barbara Marx Hubbard.................................................................................70

The Big Picture Moves Toward Global Oneness Events and Initiatives The 2020 Global Oneness Summit by Steve Farrell....................................71-72 One Planet Peace Forum Virtual Gathering September 25-27, 2020

by Robert Atkinson.......................................................................................73-74

CLOSING From the Epilogue – Connecting the Threads of a Call to Collective Action

by Robert Atkinson and Kurt Johnson...............................................................74 Excerpt from A LETTER FOR THE FUTURE the Afterword to Our Moment of Choice by Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD...................................................................75

Welcome from the Editors Each year, Light on Light produces a special issue on the global events that surround the “Fall Event Season” of the United Nations and wider global community. These important annual events remind the world of the values and ideals held highest by us all. Events and initiatives surround September’s International Day of Peace and continue through October’s Week of Spirituality and Global Oneness Day. As you all know, this year is special and unique. The current COVID pandemic and resulting global economic calamities have only further focused our attention on the need for creating a world that is successful for all. In this setting arises an important new book by over forty Evolutionary Leaders: Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future.

Nothing could be more stimulating, and inspiring, then forming our annual fall world event issue around the vital themes in the transformational vision of this book. It is indeed “Our Moment of Choice.”

The Light on Light family of publications is truly privileged to exercise its close relationship with The Evolutionary Leaders Circle and form our reports on the global events of this season around the caring, eloquent, and informed views of these global leaders.

The resulting magazine joins excerpts from across the thematic landscape of Our Moment of Choice with global events and initiatives that reflect both their challenges and possibly effective responses. The magazine is accompanied by two VoiceAmerica Specials available online.

Our Moment of Choice describes a world facing complex and interconnected crises that demand coherent interrelated solutions. This is precisely what the book delivers, with Heart, Wisdom and Skill. We are so pleased to share it with you.

Karuna, Host Editor Shannon Winters, Managing Editor Dr. Kurt Johnson, Contributions Editor

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WELCOME and INTRODUCTION � From The Source of Synergy Foundation host of The Evolutionary Leaders Circle �

Our moment of choice has arrived. Our world is currently experiencing multiple crises all at the same time. We have an inequality crisis that has spanned across centuries, a virus crisis that is rooted in how humanity has treated animals and their habitats and a climate crisis so vast that eleven thousand scientists have given us a dire warning that if we don’t change our ways we and many other precious life forms on the planet will go extinct.

There has never been a more urgent moment for human beings to come together and prepare for the task ahead, to hold the greatest vision of what we can be and do together, to lead with our hearts and co-create new realities and possibilities to reverse the course we are on.

The Source of Synergy Foundation is grateful to Light on Light Magazine for this special issue that highlights both the book, Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future (published by Beyond Words/Simon and Schuster), and inspiring synergistic partnerships among individuals, organizations and networks choosing to work together at this momentous time we are all facing.

We know that every movement in the history of humanity such as the Women’s Movement (including the recent Me Too movement), the Civil Rights Movement, the Environmental Movement, the current movement calling for equality and justice for all that have shaped or are shaping our current world, our evolution has always been connected to an expansion of self-awareness of who we are and what we can achieve collectively.

Once a critical mass of people ban together to usher in change, a new reality is born.

Millions of world citizens are showing up in the forms of circles and decentralized movements on the streets and online in unity and in solidarity, taking collective responsibility for shaping our future by synergizing efforts into a greater whole.

Today’s evolution is not about a few charismatic teachers or leaders leading the masses instead its a worldwide movement grounded in synergy of many people and many actions, visions, innovative solutions, new ways of living, thinking and doing including simple everyday

choices, all synergized together, with its foundation built on the power of love for the natural world, all living beings, and our beautiful Planet Earth.

These choices, actions and cooperative partnerships are leading the evolution.

Within this special issue, you will find excerpts from some of the 43 contributors of the book, all members of Source of Synergy Foundation’s Evolutionary Leaders Circle who are offering insights, inspiration, resources and individual and collective action steps as a contribution to the larger collective blueprint that is holding the seeds of the new.

At our Moment of Choice, there is reason for hope. We have never seen the degree of unity consciousness and synergistic convergence that we are witnessing right now. The whole has indeed become greater than the sum of its parts.

The powerful momentum of a movement by the collective “we” is driving evolution forward and exponentially taking humanity to new heights of collaboration, connection, creativity and conscious living.

We are finding each other, joining together and awakening to the understanding that we are all prophets, miracle makers and alchemists with the innate power to transmute social systems, institutions, and outdated world-views that do not serve the common good.

Much gratitude to all of you reading this edition of Light on Light Magazine and for all of those in the world that are putting forth elevated thoughts, words, actions, intentions, innovations, possibilities and much more into the collective consciousness field. As a result the whole is being impacted in powerful ways and offering great hope for our future.

Thank you for your service to the evolution.

Diane Marie Williams, Founder, The Source of Synergy Foundation

Diane Marie Williams is the Founder and President of The Source of Synergy Foundation, a non-profit organization that creates opportunities for synergistic engagement among individuals, organizations, networks and communities so that together they can have a greater transformative effect on the whole. Ms. Williams was the Initiator with Deepak Chopra of one of its main projects, The Evolutionary Leaders Circle. In 2004 she initiated the formation of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns (CSVGC) at the United Nations in New York where she served as the first Chairperson. She also served as Co-Chair and Co-Founder of this committee at the United Nations in Geneva where it originated in 2002. She was the recipient of the Spirit of the United Nations Award, the Golden Rule Award, PEMAC Peace Award and has been acknowledged by the Emily Fund for a Better World as one of the Heroes for a Better World.

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From the Evolutionary Leaders Circle

The Evolutionary Leaders gathering in Santa Barbara, California, 2018.

Can you feel it? In the midst of a pandemic, social unrest, economic distress, political upheaval and climate change that threatens the very future of our species, a transformation of human consciousness of global proportions is breaking through. This evolutionary leap is a giant step into uncharted territory, yet it is essential to our survival.

How do we navigate into the unknown? Our best bet is to do it together. That is why 186 leading authors, scientists, social artists, spiritual leaders and other visionaries have joined together in the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, a project of the Source of Synergy Foundation, bringing their ideas and their gifts into greater coherence to increase their impact as a community. 43 Evolutionary Leaders have contributed chapters to a unique and timely new book called, Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future, published by Beyond Words/Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on September 1, 2020.

Our Moment of Choice is a call to action, inviting readers to be part of a worldwide movement for radical change toward living in harmony with the Earth and one another. The book offers seven circles of chapters, each containing diverse approaches to a critical area of potential transformational change: Bridge-Building; Restoring Ecological Balance; Conscious Enterprise and Social Change; Healing Ourselves and the Planet; Integrating Science and Spirituality; New Frontiers Beyond Space and Time; and The Big Picture. Each chapter offers a fresh perspective on these challenging times, along with navigation tools for the journey.

And this moment is challenging indeed. Yet often a certain amount of breakdown is necessary to achieve a meaningful breakthrough. The corona virus has locked us inside all over the world; perhaps this cocooning, even including the suffering so many are enduring, is necessary for us to grow gorgeous, undreamed-of wings.

As you make your way through your personal metamorphosis, this issue of Light on Light Magazine gives you a sampling of the brilliant concepts and inspiring visions – including pieces by many of your favorite authors – contained in one rich volume of hope for the future. All of the contributors donated their writing in a demonstration of the power of synergy, where each one’s offering enriches the whole.

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And so we invite you to join with us to co-create a brand new operating system for humanity – and you may notice that this transformation is already on its way. We are seeing more and more folks showing they care about others whom they don’t even know: people staying home or wearing masks to keep others from getting sick; people around the world joining protests in solidarity with those experiencing racial injustice; people risking their own lives to take care of strangers; people who stop eating meat because of inhumane treatment of livestock; people healing generations of abuse and addiction; and so much more. These are not random acts of kindness, but a whole new worldview building a whole new world, based on the growing understanding that what each one of us does matters to the good of all.

Please enjoy this beautiful magazine and get yourself a copy of Our Moment of Choice at www.ourmomentofchoice.com. You are needed to play your part in whatever way calls to you during this exasperating, exhilarating, exciting planetary Moment of Choice.

Rev. Deborah Moldow, Director, The Evolutionary Leaders Circle

The Evolutionary Leaders gathering for a special media event at their 2019 event at Sunrise Ranch, Loveland, Colorado

Rev. Deborah Moldow is an ordained interfaith minister committed to assisting in the transformation of human consciousness. She is the founder of the Garden of Light, providing an online platform for the emerging global spirituality so that this community can become visible as a powerful force in uplifting the human spirit. Deborah is Director of the Evolutionary Leaders circle, a project of the Source of Synergy Foundation that brings together visionaries committed to the acceleration of the conscious evolution of humanity. She is also Vision Keeper at Unity.Earth, co-facilitator of the Conscious Business Synergy Circle, and co-editor of the 2020 book by 43 Evolutionary Leaders, Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future. She served for more than 20 years as the Representative to the United Nations of May Peace Prevail on Earth International. Rev. Deborah leads a bi-monthly Spirit Salon at her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. See www.evolutionaryleaders.net; www.gardenoflight.org

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Photo credit: Daryl Henderson

OUR MOMENT OF CHOICE: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future edited by Robert Atkinson, Kurt Johnson and Deborah Moldow

From the Publisher Humanity is currently facing a series of interconnected crises that threaten our very survival, including climate change, global economic inequality, and increasing social tensions. At the same time, a global shift in consciousness is unfolding that is harnessing our collective power to consciously choose a flourishing, life-affirming future.

Our Moment of Choice features brilliant chapters by forty-two Evolutionary Leaders, including Deepak Chopra™, Lynne McTaggart, Gregg Braden, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Jean Houston, and many more. These leading-edge thinkers reflect upon and offer creative solutions to the challenges facing humanity, providing their own visions for how we can ensure a successful completion to the transformation of consciousness already underway.

Our Moment of Choice calls on us all to be the co-creators of a just, unified, peaceful, and thriving world. The time has come for all humanity to be united in purpose. This is our call to action. This is our collective moment of choice, upon which our future depends.

BEYOND WORDS Click here for the book online!

Introduction – The New Human Story: The Power to Thrive in Our Time of Extremes

by Gregg Braden

Our Moment of Choice is written with one purpose in mind: to empower us with an honest, truthful, and factual understanding of our relationship with the earth, one another, and perhaps most importantly ourselves.

In doing so, we develop new insights and discover new answers to the ancient and timeless question: who are we?

The key to our moment of choice is simply this: the better we answer this question, the better we know ourselves and the less we fear change in the world. In the absence of fear, we are better equipped to make conscious and informed choices.

I invite you to take the discoveries in these pages and explore what they mean to you. Talk them over with the people in your life; discover if, and how, they change your story and the story that is shared in your family.

New discoveries regarding our origin, our past, and the most deeply held ideas about our existence give us reasons to rethink the traditional beliefs that define our lives. When we do, the solutions to life’s challenges become clear and the choices become obvious. This book is dedicated to revealing the discoveries that have yet to show up in our textbooks and classrooms; they hold the key to awakening our new human story.

Gregg Braden is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. He is a five-time New York Times bestselling author with books including The God Code, The Divine Matrix, and Deep Truth. His scientific expertise led to successful problem-solving careers as a computer geologist during the 1970s energy crisis, a senior liaison with the US Air Force Space Command during the 1980s Cold War, and a technical operations manager with Cisco Systems during the first Gulf War. greggbraden.com

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From the Preface The book’s seven areas explore where we are heading as we evolve toward a society dedicated to the good of the whole. Each section demonstrates the power of synergy as a key element in building a coherent field and accelerating an evolutionary leap in consciousness.

CIRCLE ONE BRIDGE-BUILDING

Together, we can build a global community and create a culture of peace.

Excerpt from

The Great Map of Peace

By James O’Dea

Practicing Peace The accelerating contribution of two previously distinct areas— neuroscience and mindfulness practices—has also strengthened an integral approach to building a global culture of peace. Neuroscience has revealed, through neuroplasticity and other concepts, that we are designed for adaptability and fresh insight. Even long-established neural pathways that convey reactivity and prejudice can be rewired to become more open to empathy, connection, and commitment to others.

This creates new opportunities that help us integrate new meaning, by softening fight-flight-freeze triggers and allowing us to relate more deeply to others.

Research on meditation and mindfulness suggest that regular meditative practices and loving kindness meditations significantly reduce anxiety, stress, and emotional reactivity. In addition, a variety of breath work and heart centering techniques help support peaceful communication, peaceful heart resonance and “compassionate listening.”

New, more intentional, nonviolent communication approaches, that are more skilled in diplomacy and conflict resolution, are also propelling the evolution of a culture of peace. Effective heart-centered communication builds environments where people listen deeply, and feel seen and heard while expressing their truth. Dialogue of this type can be profoundly healing when it allows us to experience a deep sense of unity in diversity. These skills are especially needed culture-wide—in the home, at school, at work, in our communities, and in our political discourse—as they create fields where people feel nourished and even loved despite their differences.

This heart centered communication leads us to the door of spiritual growth where we can explore the terrain of inner peace. As we evolve in the outer world, we also ascend an inner pathway to unconditional and lasting peace. Meditation and mindfulness are one facet of creating inner peace, but as progress on the path is made, a self-reflective consciousness emerges that helps surface blind spots and conditioning.

This spiritual work has a transformative effect on how we view and do peace work. More people now, especially activists, are seeing how ego, personal agendas, and the projection of unresolved issues sustain polarities and breed a sense of superiority and self-righteousness. We realize that we ourselves must “be the change we seek in the world.” We know we can no longer channel our own unresolved hostility, anger, and frustration in the name of peace. We know that being against is not the same as cultivating an openness to working together.

In the last decade, this integrated form of activism embodied by the great peacemakers Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King has started to be known as sacred activism, mystical activism, conscious activism, evolutionary activism, and visionary activism. This type of activism calls for cultivation of wisdom and passion for engaging the whole person and the whole truth, it is deeply dialogic and informed by the integration of new science and spirituality. It expresses deep ecological and environmental awareness, mobilized by new forms of conscious organizing. It envisions the birth of a new humanity.

James O’Dea is author of The Conscious Activist, Cultivating Peace, Soul Awakening Practice, and other acclaimed works. He is a former president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Washington office director of Amnesty International, and CEO of the Seva Foundation. He has taught peace-building to over a thousand students in thirty countries. He has also conducted frontline social healing dialogues around the world. jamesodea.com 9

MORE FROM BRIDGE-BUILDING Excerpt from

Chapter 2 – Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century: A Quiet Revolution

By Reverend Deborah Moldow

In the past, religious people felt motivated to do good within their own communities. Today’s spiritual seekers wish to be of service to all of humanity. This may seem a bit daunting, but it is the way of the future and the momentum is building as the stakes get higher. The will-to-good—the essence of every religion and spiritual tradition—is breaking through the tribal strictures of the past into a planetary impulse to serve that is giving people a highly enhanced sense of meaning and purpose to their lives.

This spiritual revolution, combined with and amplified by the mas­sive waves of immigration caused by globalization and climate change, is melting the previously calcified divisions of nationality, language, culture, tradition, and even that great challenge to human oneness: race. While we are currently experiencing a serious backlash against this ris­ing tide in the form of extreme nationalism and no end to the current militarism in sight, the gentle yet powerful shift in consciousness is actually taking place quite rapidly.

Click here for bio on Rev. Deborah Moldow

Photo credit: Daryl Henderson

Excerpt from

Chapter 4 – Jamming: Cultivating Connection, Community, Collaboration, and Co-liberation

By Shilpa Jain

Between the political divisiveness, social breakdowns, eco­nomic insecurity, and environmental upheaval, I often feel like I am walking the line between emergence and emergency. It takes energy, dedication, and fortitude for me to stay present, to be with what is com­ing, and to walk a clear path forward that reflects my values. And I can’t do it alone. When the going gets tough, I need beloved community to show me that we move forward by turning to each other instead of turn­ing on each other.

I have come to see YES! Jams as powerful culture-making and culture-changing platforms. The Jams use particular structures that value inclusion and wholeness of self and of all, such as check-in circles, community teams, and flow between collective and self-organization.

Every single person plays a role in shaping the collective container, and the depth and breadth of that container are what give way to higher-order solutions and previously unimagined outcomes. Just as every solution we need is already here, so is every person on the planet here with a genius and purpose. Sometimes, all that is missing are the loving mirrors from one another to help us see ourselves more clearly and the companionship to move ourselves forward.

Click here for bio on Shilpa Jain

Excerpt from

Chapter 5 – Is World Peace Possible?

By Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith

People tend to think that peace is an absence of conflict or negativity, but that’s not really what peace is about. As I describe it, peace is the dynamic of harmoniz­ing good. It is a certain quality within us. For instance, you walk into a room that on the surface looks peaceful. People aren’t fighting or even arguing, but the energy in the room tells you that there’s no peace there, that they’re at odds with each other, that they don’t like each other.

Peace would not be evident in that consciousness, even though there’s no conflict.

You walk into another room and notice people disagreeing on a par­ticular point, but the atmosphere is full of peace because the people are mature enough to converse even when they don’t necessarily agree, and peace, love, patience, kindness, and compassion are still active within their consciousnesses.

So, when we talk of peace, we’re speaking about a quality that is as real as love, harmony, and beauty. When it comes to world peace, we’re talking about a consciousness of people who are no longer suppressing peace—because peace is everywhere and it has been there all along, like the presence of God, except when being suppressed by a limited point of view.

Click here for bio on Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith 10

EVENTS AND INITIATIVES ON PEACE AND COMMUNITY

11 Days

OF GLOBAL UNITY 11 Ways to Transform Your World https://11DaysOfGlobalUnity.org

At the 16th Anniversary of 11 Days of Global Unity September 11-21, Is a WE-Based Society Possible? The Choice is Ours!

By Rick Ulfik, Founder of We, The World and the WE Campaign at WE.net and Angel Fullerton, Chief Operating Officer of We, The World

The triple intersecting pandemics of racism, inequality and COVID-19, which disproportionately harm people of color, have sparked a worldwide cry to dismantle this systemic injustice once and for all.

This diverse and visible global movement has made it obvious to millions (perhaps billions) of people that our collective wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of each and every member of our society. This is the essence of a WE-based culture. WE can no longer afford to live in a ME-based society where people’s actions are not considerate of the consequences for others – including animals, eco-systems, and all of nature!

At this crucial juncture for humanity, 11 Days of Global Unity calls forth the values, spirit and service needed to move us towards such a WE-Based culture. As Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “On the occasion of 11 Days of Global Unity, culminating on the International Day of Peace, we invite you to join us in a movement without which all the other movements for change cannot be successful. The crucial movement we are talking about is the shift from ‘I’ to ‘WE’.”

Taken together, the 11 Campaigns For Change offer a blueprint for collective action – the long-awaited MOVEMENT OF MOVEMENTS needed for the transition to a Culture of Peace and a world that works for all! UN Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall said, “Together we want to celebrate the 11 Days of Global Unity. Because it’s when we all get together that we will make the changes we must make.

We are the world.”

At this 16th Anniversary of 11 Days of Global Unity WE are excited to share highlights of the extraordinary programs and events of We, The World in collaboration with many intersecting allies and networks including Unity Earth, Compassion Games, SINE Network, Indigenous Groups, Unify, Uplift, WholeWorld View and countless others participating in 11 Days of Global Unity, the Caravan of Unity, 8 Day UP Convergence, and Peace Weekend 2020.

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11 Days of Global Unity-11 Campaigns for Change

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Highlights of 11 Days of Global Unity 2020 (By Campaigns)

Unity Campaign

HUMANITY RISING

WE, THE WORLD

Present

11 Days of Global Unity 2020 High Level Summit on the Future of Humanity Moderated by Jim Garrison (Humanity Rising) and Rick Ulfik (We, The World) this historic Summit assesses the unprecedented confluence of crises facing humanity and makes a Call To Action for a Livable Future for the 16th Anniversary of 11 Days of Global Unity September 11-21 culminating with the International Day of Peace.

11 Powerful Dialogues on Each of the 11 Campaigns For Change Hosted by Rick Ulfik Featuring some of the most visionary leaders and activists of our time Participants have included Desmond Tutu, Jane Goodall, Deepak Chopra, Daniel Ellsberg, Amy Goodman, Bill McKibben, Eve Ensler, Ralph Nader, Marianne Williamson, Michael Beckwith, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Robert Thurman, Hazel Henderson, Jonathan Granoff and many others.

https://unity.earth/caravan/ A CROSS-COUNTRY MOVEMENT FOR HARMONY AND PEACE Starting in the historic Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, the Caravan will weave its way in the USA from West to East, and also through Europe carrying a torch of hope and healing for this time of historic challenges.

Jude Currivan - Whole World View https://www.wholeworld-view.org For each day of the 11 Days, Jude comments on video and text from her perspective on each of the 11 Campaigns.

Interdependence Campaign

11 Days - 11 Stories from the Story Wagon (The Caravan of Creation)

The wagon is located in Northern Minnesota on the shores of Lake Superior.

Shannon CrossBear, along with guest elder, Angelic, will be sharing stories and will travel the Campaign Theme of each day to share indigenous wisdom on the road and through the gardens to Unity. We will be weaving the threads of our interdependence throughout the eleven days to create the story of the arrival of Peace on Earth.

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WE - The Power Of Our Stories Community Gathering Jackie Parker - 11 Days of Global Unity

Day 2 Interdependence and Day 6 Children and Youth Join a global community writing workshop and discover the beauty, wisdom, and courage we all have to share. Experience our interdependent world through the power of our stories. Poet and fiction writer Jackie Parker will help us create stories that transform and inspire—and show us how deeply connected we are. All are welcome. All ages. Experience.

Languages.

Environment Campaign

Climate Collaboratory’s Nature Festival Join The WE Campaign for Environment in the Climate Collaboratory for a fun-filled storytelling adventure with Pacha and Grandma Sage! With live performances and virtual games!

Special broadcasts from the Welcome to WE! Show featuring:

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY SUE BLYTHE & THE CLIMATE COLLABORATORY

• Sage and the TreeTenders: On the Road • through 2020 • Caravan of Unity / Florida • Pacha and the Game: On the Road to 2030 • Buckminster Fuller’s World Game • Sustainable World Games

Monthly Broadcast

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• Illuminating the Earth Charter by Expressions • through the Arts and Turning Conscience into Action

https://www.humanitreefoundation.org

Globally Planting People and Trees: Help Harmonize Humanity and Terraform our World for Future Generations Our mission here is to heal the divide between humanity and nature.

We are nature, we are this earth, and we are these trees. We plant ourselves as human beings into the ground, to “become” a tree for a short celebration, and then complete the process by planting a tree in the same hole.

Join us for the “Rooting in Humanity” Challenge for 11 Days of Global Unity and get planted!

Children & Youth Campaign

The WE Campaign Children & Youth Concert in partnership with International Children’s Month Live concert and telethon to raise donations to end child sex trafficking. Hosted in partnership with global performance artists and several Children & Youth Campaign partners.

An Urgent Message From Your Children http://WeYourChildren.org

Are you alarmed about the kind of world our children will grow up in?

They are too!

Let’s expand this global children’s movement to get the attention of those in power and help to create major change! WeYourChildren.org 16

In Botswana, Africa for 11 Days of Global Unity Angelina Gabaitse and We, The World, Botswana are focused on serving children and vulnerable families while bringing the community together to address health and economic concerns brought about by the pandemic crisis.

Human Rights Campaign

WE Campaign for Human Rights Join us on September 18th for an introduction to the WE Racial Equity Open Space Forums, Book Club, and LGBTQ+ Panel Discussions exploring what transgender and non-binary identities are and discussion of some of the lesser known LGBTQ+ identities. Tune in to learn the human rights issues people in the LGBTQ+ community face around the world.

Freedom Campaign

The WE Campaign Freedom Film Festival The Freedom Film Fest will center on a series of engaging events leading up to an online film festival with discussion panels. WE will showcase films that inspire us to imagine a future where we rise to the challenges we are now facing!

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Disarmament Campaign

https://unguninstitute.com

UnGUN Institute – Disarming Trauma September 20, 2020 From Ferguson To The World Next Steps for “Black SON Day” Ending the Cycle of Racial Violence “Black SON Day” was Declared on August 9th 6 years after 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Peace Campaign

Peace Weekend 2020 3 Days to #unitetheworld Unity Earth in Collaboration with Compassion Games, SINE Network, We, The World, Unify, Uplift and many other organizations, are inviting people across the planet to in celebration of the inaugural Peace Weekend on September 19-21, 2020 for the International Day of Peace.

Special 11 Days Broadcasts • Dr. Kurt Johnson and Convergence Radio – Voice America • Heart of Mind Radio Hosted by Kathryn Davis • A Better World Radio - Hosted by Mitchell Jay Rabin 18

The WE Campaign for Peace & No Judgment. Just Love.® For the

11 Days

OF GLOBAL UNITY Take the 11 Ways to Transform Your World No Judgment. Just Love.®

5 DAY CHALLENGE

Participate ONLINE from anywhere in the world! https://www.facebook.com/pg/nojudgmentjustlove/events/ Designed as an experiment to explore how much LOVE each one of us is willing to give and receive beyond judgments.

Begins Thursday September 17, 2020 for 5 days with 5 topics, ending on International Peace Day - September 21, 2020. #NJJL5DayChallenge!

WE Campaign for Peace and We.Net

www.NJJL.world

Good News Broadcast Peaceday Party & Concert http://www.PeacedayParty.org To learn more, please visit WE.net and 11DaysOfGlobalUnity.org Are you ready to take action and join the WE Team?

Sign up here: WE.net/partner To see and post important social change and cultural events on our free, public international Calendar go to: GlobalUnityCalendar.org Thank you for being part of 11 Days of Global Unity and for all you are doing to help create a world that works for all!

Rick Ulfik is the Founder and Board Chair of We, The World, Founder and a Principal Coordinator of the WE Campaign, and Co-Founder and Principal Organizer of 11 Days of Global Unity Sept. 11-21, an annual convergence of more than 700 associated events in over 60 countries around the world launched by We, The World and global partners in 2004. Rick also co-produces Visual Voices a TV Series Co-Sponsored by We, The World which was originally featured on the Dish Network and available in 15 million homes. He has written, produced and directed two short films. Rick organizes and promotes scores of events and other better world activities, large and small, every year. Rick has been a Nonviolent Communication (NVC) workshop facilitator and leader working with the New York Center for Nonviolent Communication. He has worked with NVC since 2004 and has participated in many workshops led by internationally acclaimed mediator and creator of NVC Marshall Rosenberg who joined the Advisory Board of We, The World.

Angel Fullerton is co-founder of the nonprofit Dragonflies Spiritual Center, whose mission is to raise consciousness in the Madison County, Kentucky community through workshops and retreats; and raising awareness and inviting collaboration on local and global issues. Her desire is to spread the message that: “Everyone is gifted with a piece of the puzzle.” She is also a transformational coach, Leadership Madison County alumni, facilitator for the Delightfully Divine Sisterhood Circle, and is involved in several community and volunteer projects. In partnership with We, The World, Angel is bringing the mission of the WE Campaign to the Madison County, Kentucky area. In collaboration with local nonprofit organizations and groups, the goal is to expand the mission of WTW in creative and innovative ways.

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75th Anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

by Jonathan Granoff August was a month in which many remembered Hiroshima to ensure it will never happen again. Join George Shultz and Mikhail Gorbachev (introduced by Jonathan Granoff) and other leaders.

Here is a prayer for moving forward and upward:

That Nagasaki Be the Last Use of a Nuclear Weapon That nuclear weapons never be used again, Oh God, bless and guide us.

To eliminate these devices, the apex of creative evil, and all devices of massive indiscriminate death, please guide us Each of us came into this world responding to our mother’s love Each came seeking family and love Each of us became identified with nation, race, gender, religion, and forgot we are one human family and every person is as precious as we are But still in the stillness in our hearts remains a light of the soul, seeking, resonating and longing for that love that brought us here into this world That love awakens and informs our universal humanity and awakens hearts without borders Intelligence has given us insights into the wondrous secrets of matter, energy, space and time Fear, ignorance, arrogance, pride, hatred and differences have led us to use these insights to create devices of incomprehensible power to inflict indescribable horrific suffering Please, Dear Lord of All, Creator of every life, every heartbeat, every moment, every leaf, blade of grass, every one of us, and universes and galaxies beyond counting, Oh Glorious Source of Love and Life, forgive us for forgetting You and Your blessings Oh Friend within all friendship, Love within all loves, Life within all lives, witness of all and everything, bless us with the wisdom that comes from compassion such that we will skillfully eliminate these devices of death and use the gift of intelligence to serve to heal, sustain, harmonize, understand, and glorify You, our humanity, and honor Your creation To end the suffering of poverty, to protect nature, to love one another, remove the ignorance from our hearts Grant us hearts of gratitude, courage, and love such that we will not falter in bringing peace, justice, beauty, and unity to Your human family Help us eliminate these devices of death and the motives from which we create them Please guide us in beautiful ways of peace such that we can be witnesses of Your Goodness Guide us with compassion, kindness and love that we might become fully human.

All praises are Yours.

Amen.

President Global Security Institute and Ambassador for Peace, Security and Nuclear Disarmament of the Parliament of the World’s Religions and Representative to the UN of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates

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THE ROAD TO 2020—A PILGRIMAGE TO PEACE WEEKEND

by Ben Bowler

This graphic from 2016 before the Tillman Chapel NYC launch of the Road to 2020, lays out the various holy sites that were visited. Some dates shifted around but the basic plan has been fulfilled.

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Ever since the launch of the Road to 2020 at Tillman Chapel, New York City on October 28 2016, we have been on a great, global pilgrimage towards Peace Weekend in September 2020.

Antoinette Rootsdawtah and Pato Banton at Tillman Chapel, October 28, 2016, rocking the global launch of the Road to 2020.

Dr Kurt Johnson, Convenor of the October 28th, 2016 launch of the Road to 2020 is instrumental in the “emergence” of UNITY EARTH.

Erik Rabasca of Light Warriors plays some soulful music at the launch.

Ben Bowler of UNITY EARTH at Tillman Chapel, 2016. “The Journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step” -- Lao Tzu.

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October 2016 marked the emergence for the first time of UNITY EARTH, a co-creative “space” which has held many of us in a field of transformation and creative spiritual energy ever since. From New York, “the Road” carried us soon to India in February 2017 for the Universal Sufi Council in Delhi and then again in March 2017 for the first Mystic Express adventure and the original Delhi Convergence. Across these two visits, great spiritual networks were strengthened and new relationships established, leading to eventually what became the major Indian event of the Varanasi Convergence in November 2019.

The fist Delhi Convergence in March 2017 convened by UNITY EARTH and www.1GOD.com

In mid-2017 the build-up continued with the Evolutionary Leaders gathering in June, then the Rome-Assisi “Spirituality and Sustainability” Conference before the major convening of the Crestone Convergence, a gathering of many “tribes”, representing different organisations and movements in the mystical mountains of Colorado.

A Peace Pole dedicated at the Crestone Convergence, July 2017.

This 4 day gathering marked a major milestone and upswing on the Road to 2020.

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Beautifully captured moments on the Road to 2020.

In November 2017, UNITY EARTH was privileged to play a part in the Return to Country of Mungo Man, bringing together Aboriginal Elders, musicians, dancers, and lore men and women to commemorate the return of the 45, 000-year-old human remains and ancestor to the World Heritage Area from where he was was removed in the 1970s. Honouring the oldest living culture on the planet, this was a powerful moment of healing and ceremony for all involved and a deeply significant event on the global Road to 2020.

Aboriginan Icon Mr. Archie Roach heads the lineup for the Return to Country Festival celebrating the long-awaited return of Mungo Man. Pic by Wayne Quilliam.

Return to Country Festival, Nowingi Place, Mildura,VIctoria, November 18, 2017

Dancers gathered from the 4 directions to celebrate Return to Country, November 2017. Photo by Bill Pheasant.

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February 2018 saw the revival of the U Day Festival concept, the first of which had happened in Thailand in 2012.

The original U Day Festival, December 21 & 22, 2012 in Chiang Mai Thailand.

The deeply mystically Convergence of Fire ceremony at Lalibela, Ethiopia, January 31, 2018 was a cosmic encounter on the Road to 2020.

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In 2018 the event was held during UN World Interfaith Harmony Week (February 1-7) in Ethiopia under the theme “Land of Origins.” For UNITY EARTH it was our first major event in Partnership with the United Religions Initiative (URI) working with Ambassador Mussie Hailu who was able to work wonders getting high-level political participation in the event including the President of Ethiopia. The Convergence of Fire Ceremony on January 31st, 2018 was an extraordinary conjunction, being a “Super Blue Blood Moon”. This ceremony has marked everyone who was blessed to be there and the “Fire of One Love” has been warming us and sustaining our growing community ever since.

Flag Ceremony at the African Union as Part of U Day 2018 “Land of Origins”.

U Day 2018 “Land of Origins” featured the President of Ethiopia as well as the Patriach of the Ethiopian Chirch and the Head Muslim of this religiously tolerant country.

A beautiful record of U Day 2018, in video and song.

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Mid 2018 saw the fist Jerusalem Convergence, building up to U Day 2020. This was followed by a pilgrimage go to Greenland to witness the heartbreaking sight of rapidly diminishing glaciers of ice. Later in the year was the second Delhi Convergence in October and then a major gathering at the Parliament of World’s Religions for the Toronto Convergence in early November.

Many build up events, gatherings and Convergence meetings around the world have contributed to the global Road to 2020.

This remarkable meeting of many leaders is captured beautifully in this short video.

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Hot on the heels of the Toronto Parliament was the ground-breaking Fields of Healing in Byron Bay, Australia.

Bringing together Indigenous leaders, musicians, artist and activists from around the world, this remarkable multiday event created a new web of relationships, stretching across the planet, facilitated a deeper healing and engagement and built even more momentum for the growing mission of UNITY EARTH and the Road to 2020. The powerful closing ceremony was another of those life-affirming moments, never to be forgotten by all present.

Closing Ceremony for Fields of Healing, Byron Bay in November 2018 - the two-day gathering was another major milestone of the global Road to 2020.

Fields of Healing brought together many Indigenous wisdom holders from Australia, New Zealand (Aotearoa) and around the world.

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In February 2019, back in UN Interfaith Harmony Week, this time the Road to 2020 returned to New York, for a series of pilgrimages and events culminating in the New York Convergence and UNITY EARTH LIFTOFF. Convening once again change-makers; visionary artists, evolutionary leaders and heads of NGOs this series of events across the week led to more impact and engagement by the various organizations involved. The 4 hour long show LIFTOFF on February 6th at the United Palace was an extraordinary combination of art, music, and spiritual inspiration including a screening and performance of the incomparable Bella Gaia.

The New York Convergence, February 2nd, 2019, convening for the 2020 Caravan of UNITY Across America

UNITY EARTH LIFTOFF, United Palace, NYC, February 6th, 2019 29

The next significant convening for the Road to 2020 was the Melbourne Convergence in mid-November which brought together a panel of Aboriginal Elders from the Lake Mungo area, speaking about the future of the World Heritage Area. This event also featured Grammy-nominated artist Pato Banton and Antoinette Rootsdawtah who had been such a major part of the journey all the way back to Thailand in 2012.

Flag Ceremony at the famous Banaras Hindu University, centre for Peace Studies, opening ceremony of the Varanasi Convergence November 2019.

Pilgrimage to Sarnath site of Buddha’s first teaching, as part of the Varanasi Convergence.

The following week saw the major Indian event the Varanasi Convergence, convening dozens of organisations in the famous Holy City along the Ganges River. The Varanasi Convergence features the national assembly of the URI as well as the Kabir Music Festival and a pilgrimage to Sarnath, site of Buddha’s first sermon.

Kristin Hoffmann takes centre stage at the Varanasi convergence.

The ethereal Miss Kristin Hoffmann getting her angel-wings on at the Varanasi Convergence. Photo by Nina Bakker.

Pato rocks the Mahindra Kabira Fest 2019 as part of the Varanasi Convergence. Photo by Daryl Henderson.

Auntie Pixie from Eastern Australia opening the Kabir Festival closing night of the Varanasi Convergence.

URI Executive Director Victor Kazanjian joins Pato Banton in singing up a storm in Varanasi on the final night.

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In February 2020, again in World Interfaith Harmony Week came the largest and most ambitious pilgrimage so far, in U Day 2020: Holy Land Living Water. This 7-day deep-pilgrimage across Jordan, Palestine, and Israel included visits to various holy sites, musical performance, and powerful interfaith ceremonies including an extraordinary moment at Armageddon (Har Megiddo). Water was a major theme of the festival which also featured the outstanding ecological Peace-building work of our ground partners EcoPeace Middle East, and their heroic efforts to rejuvenate the Jordan River.

February 2nd, 2020: An extraordinary gathering of indigenous leaders convene the opening Four Direction Ceremony on the Dead Sea in Jordan to begin U Day 2020: Holy Land Living Water.

February 6th, Bob Marley’s birthday was the scene for the U-Nite concert in Haifa to close out U Day 2020. Photo by Daryl Henderson.

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Armegeddon (Har Megiddo) February 6th, 2020 was a pivotal moment in every sense. Rev. Angelica Cubides giving thanks and praise at the completion of the ceremony.

Rocky Dawuni delivering Get Up Stand Up at U-Nite, February 6th, 2020. Photo by Daryl Henderson.

The exquisite film by Ben Reisman which captures the spirit of the historic gathering.

The plan for the Road to 2020 was always to finish with the Caravan of Unity Across America which culminated in Peace Weekend 2020 (September 19-21) which itself was built around the UN International Day of Peace. Following Holy Land Living Water, there was a tremendous amount of energy and momentum carrying us forward, a growing number of global partnerships, great hope, and strong belief surrounded the build-up to September events.

Then the world got shut down.

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Unprecedented unity and synergy flourished during the inaugural World UNITY Week, June 20-27, 2020.

The emergence of World UNITY Week was a direct response to the uncertainty of the global Covid 19 experience. When we asked what could we do with all the momentum we had within all the uncertainty that suddenly existed, the idea of an online series of events from the June 20 Solstice leading to the June 27 celebration of the 75th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter revealed itself and in co-creative partnership with Jon Ramer from SINE and 100 global partners, World UNITY Week was born.

The Promotional video for World UNITY Week.

World UNITY Week became an electrified field of potentials actualising, synergy realising and networks aligning in an unprecedented 8-day online global event. Using a combination of Zoom and Facebook Live, hundreds of organisations came together, to offer 200+ presentations viewed nearly 600 000 times. The global indigenous-led solstice blessing set the tone of sacred reverence, healing and global unity. The multi-zoom Convergence pushed the limits of the possible and broke new ground as we were pushed to adapt and innovate by the drastically changed global situation. World UNITY Water day was a blessing in the middle of the week and then the closing ceremony sealed the experience and paved the road ahead towards September and Peace Weekend.

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August 2020 is featuring events commemorating the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the inaugural Black SON Day, promoting justice, healing and legacy for the victims and their families of racial violence around the world. The August 28th was the Launch Event for the Caravan of UNITY - A Pilgrimage to Peace Weekend, also being the 57th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream Speech� of Dr. Martin Luther King.

The entire journey is beautifully captured in this short Ben Reisman movie.

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After these many years on the Road following this extraordinary journey, we shall soon be arriving at our destination - September 2020. Here comes the 11 Days of Global Unity and the UP Convergence, both beginning on September 11th. All this momentum and activity is leading to the inaugural Peace Weekend 2020. It is time, past time, for the movements of peace and unity, justice, ecological integrity, and international morality to show up on the world stage with historic force. It is our planetary moment of choice.

May we each be aided to choose wisely and decisively, once and for all.

Ben Bowler UNITY EARTH

In the end, at the very heart of it all, is friendship and love.

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CIRCLE TWO RESTORING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE We regard the universe as alive and conscious; we are planetary stewards.

Regenerating Earth and Her People

By Daniel Christian Wahl, PhD Planetary Healing: Addressing Causes rather than Symptoms In the face of unprecedented biodiversity loss, climate change, unacceptable levels of global inequality, and imminent societal, economic, and ecological breakdown around the world, we have to think in terms of evolutionary opportunity. And to address the underlying causes of our unsustainable worldview by changing our hearts and minds to become humble stewards and careful healers co-creating conditions conducive to life.

Life is about Cooperative Abundance (Not Competitive Scarcity) Life’s evolution follows a pattern of diversification and subsequent integration of diversity at higher levels of complexity. Throughout evolution, this integration has predominantly been achieved through new forms of cooperation and symbiosis. It is time to reperceive life as a planetary process of cooperation in which a unified whole expressing itself on nested temporal and spatial scales of complexity evolves in intimate reciprocity as a living planet. Life is a regenerative community rooted in patterns of symbiosis and cooperation that creates shared abundance and conditions conducive to life.

Competition clearly does exist but in far smaller proportions than our myopic focus on scarcity as the driver of evolution has led us to believe.

To offer an analogy, one could say that the role of competition in life’s evolution is proportional to the waves and ripples at the surface of a vast symbiotic and cooperative ocean. Evolution is coevolution! Throughout its evolution, life itself has continued to create the conditions conducive for more diverse and complex life to evolve.

To list just a few of the many pronounced leaps of evolution marked by new forms of cooperative complexity: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

The merging of two non-nucleated cells to form the first eukaryotic cells that made more complex life possible Such cells coming together into multicellular organisms The cooperative differentiation of cell types and functions that enabled complex organism such as vertebrates The complex patterns that create collaborative advantage in social mammals such as whales, elephants, wolves, apes, and human Our human systems of governance and conviviality at the scale of neighborhood, city, bioregion, nation, and the United Nations Recent discoveries about the role of the human microbiome in maintaining health and regulating gene expression, which reveal that our bodies are actually highly divers and cooperative walking ecosystems with more nonhuman than human cells in and on them

In the face of converging crises, our relatively young species is now poised for an unprecedented evolutionary development. Facing the possibility of a premature extinction is pushing us into a global rite of passage as our species comes of age. It is time to grow up and become mature and responsible members of the community of life.

The only appropriate response to life being in crisis on the planet is to aim to be of service in Earth’s healing and regeneration. In doing so we will begin to heal our disconnected and fractured selves as we re-indigenize, reconnect, and re-inhabit what the poet Mary Oliver called “our place in the family of things.”

Daniel Christian Wahl, PhD, works internationally in the fertile intersection between education, transformative innovation, futures practice, activism, and culture change. His background is in biology, zoology, and holistic science, with a PhD in design for sustainability (University of Dundee). He is a member of the International Futures Forum, a fellow of the Findhorn Foundation and the Royal Society of the Arts, on the advisory council of the Ojai Foundation, and the author of Designing Regenerative Cultures. danielchristianwahl.com 36

MORE FROM RESTORING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE Excerpt from

Chapter 8 – One Good Person

By Constance Buffalo We know from our earliest teachings that we humans are of the Fourth World. The First World was the creation of the elements (wind, water, air, and fire) and the star nations. The Second World brought the lands and oceans, mountains, and all that covered the earth. The Third World was all the animals, the crawlers, swimmers, fliers, and all the more-than-human creatures of this world. And, lastly, in the Fourth World came the new ones, the humans.

All of those of the worlds before us are our ancestors and our family. We don’t see the tree or river as an object but as a relation. To the stand­ing ones, we say Grandfather, and to the moon, we say Grandmother. In this way, we aren’t separate but belong, and in that belonging, we love and care for our family. We don’t try to protect the earth as if it were separate from us, for we are of the earth.

This kinship helps us to remember that each being is a meaningful thread in the web of life in both the seen and the unseen worlds and that we belong to a reality far greater than ourselves. A reality that gives us our visions, inspires our actions, and endures beyond time as we know it.

Click here for bio on Constance Buffalo

Excerpt from

Chapter 9 – Prophesies, Dynamic Change, and a New Global Civilization

By Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr.

Young people are emerging as leaders in every dimension of human and community transformation; this has been long prophesied by indig­enous elders. According to these prophesies, their work also signals a global rise of indigenous leadership while we face the growing threat of runaway climate change, loss of biodiversity, and ecosystemic collapse.

We have now entered the long-promised spiritual springtime, and there is the emergence of the Seventh Generation, and young people from everywhere on Mother Earth are mobilizing to address climate change and biodiversity loss. One such example are those working with Our Children’s Trust who have filed several lawsuits on behalf of youth plaintiffs.

Across the Americas and around Mother Earth, the Seventh Gen­eration is resonating with a call for a political, social, and spiritual transformation to address an ineffective and unacceptable political and economic system, everywhere all at once.

No matter the challenges, we will eventually awaken to the spiritual and biological reality that we are all one human family, intimately related to all life.

Click here for bio on Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr.

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EVENTS AND INITIATIVES TOWARDS RESTORING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE

Original Caretakers’ Ongoing Work for Sacred Sites Excerpted and updated from Mindahi Bastida Muñoz published in Light on Light Magazine Issue 3, May 7, 2019.

In the world, Sacred Sites need to be protected because they are key components in the complex and dynamic web of life.

Sacred Sites hold biocultural memory and wisdom about how to live harmoniously with Mother Earth and living systems. It is a kind of knowledge that can be tapped by Spiritual Elders primarily. Protecting Sacred Sites promotes the good living of indigenous peoples, which is based on ancestral wisdom, philosophy, collective values and earth-based spirituality.

The biological diversity that Sacred Sites sustain cannot be explained merely in ecological or evolutionary terms, but, as new ecologists have stated, in biocultural terms. This means that there are cultures that have developed harmonious relationships with ecosystems in such a way that they become mutually interdependent. In this regard, reciprocal acknowledgement is needed, and Sacred Sites become the nodal or axis point for such exchange. Spiritual Elders are the caretakers of sacred places and they are responsible of delivering payments and offerings through rituals so that the biocultural memory is kept alive.

Cover of Light on Light’s special issue on Sacred Sites and Spirituality in Nature

which outlined the work of the Original Caretakers “Four Pillars” Initiative.

The work has been initiated with the generous hosting from The Center for Earth Ethics, Forum 21 Institute and The International Council on Environmental Economics and Development, and our associations with The Interspiritual Dialogue Network, UNESCO, UNITY EARTH and numerous collectives among First Peoples, particularly the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico. There also is a BioCultural Sacred Sites Synergy Circle of the Evolutionary Leaders that assists the work, along with global networks like The Loka Initiative, the Spirituality and Sustainability Global Network and the Four Worlds Foundation associated with Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr.

Transformative Communities and Sacred Sites Many Sacred Sites are in danger of destruction, occupation, desecration and/or commodification. In different places around the world there have been continuous efforts for their protection. In particular, these proposals have been built from the bosom of some of the native peoples, who have maintained their sacred sites or have defended them in spite of many difficulties.

Given the continuous deterioration of life systems of our Mother Nature, it is urgent to restore the most affected places in the world. The Ancestral Sacred Sites play a key role in the restoration of those affected places because Ancestral Sacred Sites are energetic points that elevate the capacity of Mother Earth to restore systemic balance.

Worldwide, Ancestral Sacred Sites are interconnected. This means that they operate together energetically and potentiate the capacity of actions at a single place to restore the balance of a nearby, or even far-flung, affected place.

This is related to the frontiers of our human understanding of symbology. This emerging field within consciousness studies inquires about the interrelations of material objects with the stories that are told about them. This includes the entire realm of cultural archetypes (deities and so on) and shared cultural mythologies (like embedded views of ultimate rewards and punishments) and their actual effects within human cultures. In other words, the elements….. things seen and things “as seen”….

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Transformative change communities have a key role to play in addressing the systemic crisis, but if they are to succeed, they must be given opportunities to revisit their deepest philosophies and practices. Original Caretakers can help guide these communities so they can intentionally acknowledge the wisdom of original peoples.

This vast crucial landscape is the work of Original Caretakers and the breath of the Four Pillars of their pivotal work: (1) Assembling a Council of Elders (2) Sacred Sites: Coordinated actions and initiatives at sacred sites (3) Houses of Original Thinking: Centers for the Gathering of Indigenous Wisdom (4) Intercultural Dialogue: Diverse Activities in Dialogue and Exchange We invite support and participation in this work from fellow travelers around the world dedicated to First Peoples and Mother Earth.

Evolutionary Leader Connie Buffalo joined EL’s Oscar Miro-Quesada and John Perkins in choreographing the EL’s 2015 gathering at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, around First Peoples’s ceremony and a vision quest.

Gathering of leaders after the sacred sites ceremonies conducted earlier that day for “The Four Corners” Sacred Site in the United States, 2018

Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz is Director of the Original Caretakers program at the Center for Earth Ethics. He serves as the General Coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico. He is a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec Peoples, and has been a Ceremonial Officer since 1988. Born in San Pedro Tultepec, Mexico State, he holds a PhD in Rural Development by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and a Masters in Political Science by Carleton University. Bastida Muñoz has served as a delegate to several commissions and summits on indigenous rights and the environment. He has written on the relationship between the State and Indigenous Peoples, intercultural education, sacred sites, collective intellectual property rights and associated traditional knowledge, among other topics.

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PURPOSE EARTH FUND

by Purpose Earth

On June 21, 2020 UNITY EARTH and the GLOBAL PURPOSE MOVEMENT launched the PURPOSE EARTH FUND through a three-hour online event, channeling their inspiration and energy to initiate a global initiative to offer grants and mentorship opportunities with real-world impact.

Each of us plays a critical role in nurturing and uniting people and the planet in this new way forward. Creative paths to a sustainable future arise from grassroots activation for real societal and environmental change. By investing in resources to allow our neighborhoods to thrive and learning to respect and honor the natural world that sustains us, we can shift from habitual, materialistic consumption to a world of reciprocity, creating sustainable change that truly works for everyone.

WE KNOW THIS IS POSSIBLE. Creative solutions to our environmental and social challenges are being developed around the world, and this good work requires economic resources not often available from larger funding institutions. The PURPOSE EARTH FUND focuses on empowering individuals and nonprofit organizations at critical stages in their project development.

Funds are distributed directly to our PURPOSE EARTH grant recipients, allowing your contribution to make a powerful, immediate impact on local communities. All donations assist young social entrepreneurs, passionate community leaders and purposeful organizations to accelerate their endeavors toward sustainable change.

Contributions to our PURPOSE EARTH FUND also provide ongoing mentorship, ensuring our grantees have guidance in operational strategies to support the longevity and impact of their projects. Donors are connecting individuals and projects to our larger global community and helping write a shared story of global transformation.

The magnitude of our global connection and our responsibility within this intricate tapestry of humanity can no longer be ignored. Each one of us plays a key role in this new way forward, one guided by an individual and collective sense of purpose. Donations to our PURPOSE EARTH FUND nurture the seeds of transformation to create a thriving planet and social system that works for our global family.

TOGETHER WE ARE MINDFULLY CREATING A WORLD THAT UNITES US ALL. FOUNDER Emanuel Kuntzelman, the visionary behind PURPOSE EARTH, founding co-creator of Global Purpose Movement and founder of the Chicagobased nonprofit organization, Greenheart International, envisions the PURPOSE EARTH FUND initiative as a way to promote purposeful action in solving the many global challenges of these times. Emanuel said “Right now, we need to make a turn, a momentous, once in human history turn. We need to shift back to the spiritual nature of who we all are. Now is the time to come together as one humanity, with one cause of creating this new purpose on the planet.�

PURPOSE EARTH was a proud partner World UNITY Week, an online global convergence June 20 - 27 of over one hundred civil society global organizations and initiatives, including: Parliament of the World Religions, the United Religions Initiative, Pachamama Alliance, UNITY, UNEP Faiths for Earth Initiative, EARTH, EcoPeace Middle East, Four Worlds International, WholeWorld-View, Unify, UPLIFT, and the Shift Network.

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PURPOSE EARTH FUND LAUNCH Our June event reached over 10,000 people, and was hosted by Lyla June, an internationally recognized Indigenous environmental scientist, community organizer and musician of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages from Taos, NM. Her dynamic, multi-genre performance and speech style has invigorated and inspired audiences across the globe towards personal, collective and ecological healing.

Also included were: cosmologist, author and founder of WholeWorld-View, Jude Currivan; GRAMMY Nominated Musician and UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Environment for Africa, Rocky Dawuni; Xiye Bastida, climate justice activist and a lead organizer of the Fridays For Future youth climate strike movement and coordinator for the Re-Earth Initiative; poet, performer and producer Tanya Evanson; visual artist and curator Sergio Gomez; systems theorist, author and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ervin Laszlo; and BELLA GAIA, a NASApowered immersive experience, among many others. This diverse collection of segments including youth activists, indigenous wisdom, moving meditation, dance, live painting and Quantum conversations to inspire and empower viewers to live their purpose and take action.

Some of the audiences’ reaction: “Quite an EVENT! I would call it a HAPPENING.” “Such an amazing event, great learnings and performances” “Revolutionary, AWE inspiring” “You have seeded amazing shifts in the world.”

“Unexpected...I’m more confident than ever in my purpose.”

PURPOSE EARTH FOR PEACE Our next event – PURPOSE EARTH FOR PEACE – will be special broadcast scheduled for November 15, 2020. The theme for the two-hour program is “Creating a Culture of Peace: “What does peace mean to you? How do you create a culture of peace in your life and work?”

PURPOSE EARTH FOR PEACE will follow on the culmination of UNITY EARTH’S Caravan of Unity, a cross-country movement for harmony and peace, starts in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral, moving across the United States to reach New York City for PEACE WEEKEND. Peace is the natural state of being. PURPOSE EARTH FOR PEACE will inspire a sense of connection to the whole of the planet, cosmos, and humanity. Separation and scarcity is an illusion and no longer is of service. People from all over the world, crossing transitional demographics and cultural identities, are calling for change at the very roots of our social justice and value systems. This is not only idealistic and philosophical, this is pragmatic and practical, absolutely necessary for the survival of our species.

The Caravan of Unity and Peace Weekend are unprecedented opportunities to create a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world. For peace to be possible on collective scales, we must seek to find peace within, returning to the natural rhythm of life, which is a state of peace within ourselves, each other, and our planet.

The magnitude of our global connection and our responsibility within this intricate tapestry of humanity can no longer be ignored. Each one of us plays a key role in this new way forward, one guided by an individual and collective sense of purpose.

To Register and obtain information for PURPOSE EARTH FOR PEACE please visit http://purposeearth.org/. For more information about PURPOSE EARTH contact: sarvin@globalpurposemovement.org.

Emanuel Kuntzelman’s vision for Global Purpose Movement and Purpose Earth began as a student of sociology in the 1970s, when his professor explained the pending global crisis we faced as a result of the exponential growth in population, consumption, environmental degradation, technology and the production of armaments, among others things. The professor’s challenge was to find a solution to the crisis and preserve our planet and the well-being of humanity for future generations. Emanuel has been working on that homework assignment now for nearly a half century. A philosopher, writer, public speaker, and social entrepreneur, Emanuel is the founder and president of the Chicago-based non-profit Greenheart International and co-founder of Fundación por el Futuro (Foundation for the Future), based in Madrid, Spain. Emanuel joined the Evolutionary Leaders circle in 2019.

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CIRCLE THREE CONSCIOUS ENTERPRISE & SOCIAL CHANGE We are ethical stewards of the earth’s economic and communications integrity.

Excerpt from

The Dawn of a Conscious Business Movement

By Steve Farrell

Exploring the Essence of Conscious Business Chris Laszlo, of Case Western Reserve University, says that conscious business must include both inner transformation and outer transformation dimensions. B Lab and other progressive organizations often focus just on outer transformation—people, planet, and profit, for example. Laszlo shares that business must focus on the welfare of people and planet, not just profit.

In Humanity’s Team, we agree and, as Chris points out, inner transformation is also critically important to feed a flourishing business.

Inner transformation focuses on practices like mindfulness but goes beyond to a deeper place where we commune with Source energy. People may individually find any number of equally valid and compelling ways to commune with this energy, from spiritual beliefs and practices rooted in a belief in the Divine to a deep resonance with the principles of quantum physics, which unambiguously establish that life is interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent. Everything is part of a single reality. We are all emanations of one thing.

One year, during Global Oneness Day on October 24th, we coined the concept of the “4P” model: people, planet, presence, and profit. Presence brings in wholeness, unity, and awakened consciousness. It looks out at the world and sees a deeply spiritual or interconnected ecology. When we become conscious, everything changes. Many then see the likeness and image of God in ourselves, each other, and the world around us. Others experience a resonant connection with Source in less spiritual terms, perhaps as an undeniable, uplifting energy that threads through all things, connecting all life forms.

Business models focusing just on outer transformation help businesses to do less harm, but one definition of a flourishing business also requires inner transformation, where interior process comes into play. The inner journey is a soulful experience of love, beauty, goodness, and truth. It shapes how we see ourselves and what we see when we look out on the world. We become anchored in this new reality. Life is sacred and we place our lives in service to the sacred. It is only a matter of time before these perspectives find their way into the workplace.

Mindfulness, for instance, is already coming in strong. And it’s critically important that leaders facilitate the business dialogue in a wholly inclusive manner, avoiding prescriptive statements about a singular ideology or path.

The great religions of the world honor Divine inspiration and connection with Source. Science is also increasingly confirming that all the cosmos is connected. We are part of a natural and social web of life that nurtures and sustains us.

Spirituality, religion, and leading scientific thought likewise all have a stake in supporting people’s inner transformation. If the core values and culture of the company are open and inclusive, honoring diverse spiritual, religious, and scientific perspectives, things will fall together beautifully. Conscious business creates the opportunity for integration of deeply held values into work life, which in turn includes quality of life and markers of success other than profit when assessing an organization’s value and quality.

Steve Farrell is the president and executive director of Humanity’s Team, a global grassroots spiritual movement with over 650,000 friends in over 150 countries. Humanity’s Team focuses on awakening and embodying Oneness so humanity may enjoy a sustainable world of peace, harmony, and happiness. Their projects include Global Oneness Day (created in response to visiting the United Nations in 2010), a Oneness Declaration, and a year-round Living in Oneness summit. humanitysteam.org 42

MORE FROM CONSCIOUS ENTERPRISE & SOCIAL CHANGE

Excerpt from

Chapter 12 – Youth-Led Social Enterprise Projects

By Gino Pastori-Ng In the midst of unprecedented challenge, the young people inher­iting a world in crisis are still being encouraged to channel their talent and energy toward the maintenance of a destructive status quo. Every school classroom should be transformed into an innovation laboratory where young people can experiment with ideas to solve social and environmental problems.

I envision a global network of hyperlocalized economies led by those who have been most marginalized by the exploitation economy. They are the most creative, resilient, and best equipped to create meaningful, lasting solutions if given access to the proper resources and opportunities. Imagine a world where every­one’s basic needs are met, where every being has the opportunity to share their gifts, and where human existence actually improves the health of our ecosystems and increases biodiversity.

What is needed to achieve this vision is a global movement, in which diverse innovators are supported by a massive influx of resources from those who have inherited the wealth of the exploitation economy. Those who have reaped the financial rewards of the status quo have a historic opportunity and moral obligation to turn the tides of climate collapse and social inequity by divesting from extractive, exploitative industries and investing in the birth of a life-affirming economy.

Click here for bio on Gino Pastori-Ng

Excerpt from

Chapter 15 – Reinventing the Planet: A Bottom Up Grand Strategy

By David Gershon What if we could empower people to want to change? What if we could help people tap into their innate desire for a better life, com­munity, and world? What if we could support people to create a vision of these dreams that was so compelling, they were effortlessly pulled toward them? What if we then provided people the tools to attain these dreams?

This is empowerment in action! It provides people with the agency that is at the heart of Social Change 2.0. And what emerges is a plan for reinventing the planet! One of the social change solutions essential to humanity’s evolution is the Peace Goal and Strategy of the Peace on Earth by 2030 Game, which says by 2030, empower humanity with the agency and second-order change knowledge to transform the paradigm of war and create peace on earth. The game serves as deep medicine to heal that which separates us. There are so many people of goodwill connected across the planet that with the right spark, we can ignite a global fire that empowers humanity to fulfill its deepest dream.

Click here for bio on David Gershon

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CONSCIOUS ENTERPRISE & SOCIAL CHANGE EVENTS & INITIATIVES

Conscious Business Synergy Circle A Joint Project of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, Humanity’s Team and UNITY EARTH

By The Circle We are a global community of business leaders, grounded in the principles of the Conscious Business Declaration, whose purpose is to empower the transformative potential of business to heal the environment, improve human well-being, and increase economic prosperity for the flourishing of all life on Earth. It has over eighty members.

The Circle co-hosted the 2019 Conscious Business World Summit, a joint project of members of Humanity’s Team, the Evolutionary Leaders Circle and UNITY EARTH. Following the summit we were thrilled to launch the premier issue of a new e-magazine imprint, Conscious Business. This important launch followed on and emphasized the same important themes for Conscious Enterprise and Social Change as Light on Light’s special issue about global “Change-Makers.” The Guest Editors of Conscious Business are Evolutionary Leaders Steve Farrell and Peter Matthies. Steve’s Our Moment of Choice chapter on Conscious Business is featured just above in the book excerpts.

In 2020 the Circle has convened panels for major global online events, including “The Becoming of Business” for World Unity Week (see below), “Conscious Governance and Conscious Business” for the Global Oneness Summit (see Events under Circle 7 “The Big Picture”) and “Prosocial, Partnerism, and Praxis” for the Conscious Evolution Summit.

The Circle hosts a number of talented young conscious business entrepreneurs whose work in gaining more and more recognition. Their recent initiatives include: The Becoming of Business The Becoming of Business was launched as a very successful participatory event of the World Unity Week. It is a joint, global effort, created to help shepherd business from what is a non-sustainable adolescence, to a new level of maturity and growth towards a more caring, more functional, and more abundant adulthood.

The Becoming of Business is a coming together of the most brilliant minds and wise hearts to explore and to execute on this transition. It is an undertaking of imagining and implementing what business can become what will continuously circle back its findings into the mix of ongoing discussions, new questions, and innovative solutions.

The first round of the endeavor were the talks that were recorded and aired during the World Unity Week. Participants in these circles were chosen based on their impact in their respective field and being open to exploring these questions to which no one in isolation yet has the answer.

This reflects another goal of The Becoming of Business—to erase silos and understand the implications for Conscious Business that pertain to a wide variety of enterprises, not only just the business and corporate arena, but also interfaith, spirituality, psychology, academia, politics, media and even the military. Only when we break free from our silos and preconceived ideas of “others” can we be of service to the whole.

The Becoming of Business is a building process and a listening process that is open to all people and businesses who wish to partake and find guidance for the next steps and directions of business and economics. To learn more about Linda Bjork see bjorkbusiness.com.

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Building Branding Communities (A new book by The Art of Community Nautilus Award winner Charles Vogl and Carrie Melissa Jones) Many top tier organizations, whether non-profit, political, faith-based or commercial, know that meaningful connections unlock unprecedented outcomes. But too many brands mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships to connect with partners, employees, and customers. In this especially lonely era, people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl reveal how to build authentic brand communities, where members grow mutual concern, share personal values, and gather in meaningful experiences, both online and off. Successful communities help members grow into who they want to be.

An authentic brand community is far more than a group working alongside one another or a list of customers connected to a brand on social media. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Twitch, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, Patagonia and others to meaningfully connect with the people critical for their success. Building Brand Communities distills key lessons to create engaged and effective communities by growing mutual concern, expressing common values, and sharing experiences. Success can develop fiercely loyal collaborator and customer relationships.

Learn more at www.charlesvogl.com and Google Books.

The Who Within (“I’m In!”) A new book by young Canadian entrepreneurial leader John Stix. John Stix, like many driven entrepreneurs, suffered from the misconception that his identity and the identity of his business, were one. He woke up one day to the realization that he felt trapped by the very success he had achieved. He was unfulfilled and disengaged and looking around at a company that was similarly suffering from infighting, lack of engagement, and a growth curve that was going the wrong way. “Discover Your WHO” describes John’s journey which stemmed from the question: “If I feel disconnected from the business and life that I created, then really WHO AM I?” He embarked on an adventure of self-discovery, transforming himself and his business along the way. “Discover Your WHO” is a guide book for any leader feeling trapped and disengaged. It will take you on a journey inward to discover who you truly are. By authentically knowing yourself and empowering your team, you can lead your business and your life to new levels of growth and success. To purchase your copy, visit https://www.amazon.ca/Im-Discover-Your-WHO. To learn more, visit johnstix.ca.

INDIGO, A GLOBAL NETWORK OF MINDFUL DOERS As we face major social and environmental challenges, we know we have to Change, altogether as a Civilization. Indigo founder Pierre Geraud says: “At Indigo we strongly believe Change will come from Within, so we gather, and empower a community of mindful Entrepreneurs, Artists, Thinkers, and Change-Makers, so they can create ventures that contribute to the Collective Conscious Evolution. The way to engage the network is similar to a startup studio, with phases of exploration, and ideation, prior to developing Minimum Viable Products, to test our assumption et Prove our Concepts. The main differences are that we focus on projects that support behavioral changes, mindfulness and contribute to raising the conscious evolution of our civilization at large. Therefore every project is assessed on their impact and contribution on each of the four following phases of enlightenment : Wake up, Grow up, Heal up and Show up.

We already count 200+ contributors in the network, in multiple countries : USA, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Portugal, Australia,. We currently work on multiple projects at the intersection of Science, Technology, Art and Mindfulness. While we cannot disclose the project we are working on at the moment, we expect to launch our first enterprises in early 2021”.

Pierre is a purpose-driven entrepreneur who dedicates himself to making an impact through meaningful ventures that include mindfulness, social innovation and sustainability. He is the founder and CEO of Indigo, co-founder at IN LIMEN: a series of Art Rituals and founding partner at Standard Dose an award-winning marketplace for holistic health and wellness. A former strategic consultant, prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Pierre has lived in Paris, London, and NYC and worked in every type of organization from early stage startups, to scale up and big consulting firms.

He has also been practicing Capoeira for the last ten years, ranking as Graduado Lagarto in 2019.

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PARTNERISM: THE FUTURE OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY With the current social and economic breakdown and urgent need for fundamental systems transformation, the Center for Partnership Studies (CPS) is launching the Make Partnerism Mainstream campaign to bring to global consciousness the building blocks necessary to reinvent economics and policies so they support and reward our human capacity to be aware, creative, and to care for all people and planet.

In 1987, Riane Eisler introduced in The Chalice and The Blade the Eisler Partnership-Domination Social Scale.

The ideologies of capitalism and socialism came out of the 1700’s and 1800’s when top-down rankings of domination in both homes and society were still generally viewed as normal and women were legally the property of their fathers or husbands. Consequently, the work women did, such as caring for people, starting in childhood, and keeping a clean and healthy environment, was not economically valued by either capitalism or socialism. This second-class ranking of women in the home and in society was, and still is in many cultures, enforced through fear, violence, and domination.

These are hallmarks of domination-oriented systems where culture and policies do not support caregiving in homes, and this work is only paid poverty wages in the market, even though, as the Covid-19 Pandemic shows, it is essential.

Partnerism is a new social category that values linking rather than ranking (such as man over man, man over woman, man over nature, race over race, etc). In this system, parents, teachers, managers, and leaders empower rather than disempower others in hierarchies of actualization rather than hierarchies of domination. Partnerism is inclusive at its core.

Partnerism includes everyone, as we endeavor to create both a caring economics that values what has previously been unseen and ignored, and social policies that invest in human capacity development starting from infancy through the entirety of life.

Partnerism includes everyone and centers on human capacity development toward caring for one another and nature.

CPS was founded in 1985 by Riane Eisler and David Loye.

Riane Eisler is President of the Center for Partnership Studies and author of a dozen books including The Real Wealth of Nations and most recently Nurturing Our Humanity (Oxford University Press, 2109).

Riane Eisler, J.D., PhD[h], is a systems scientist, cultural historian, attorney, consultant, and speaker whose research has inspired scholars and social activists, showing how to construct a more equitable and less violent world based on partnership rather than domination. She is president of the Center for Partnership Studies (CPS), Editor in Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, and internationally known for her bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, (Harper & Row, 1987), now in 57 U.S. printings and 27 foreign editions, plus books applying her research to evolution, religion, education, sexuality, economics, and politics. Eisler keynotes conferences worldwide, teaches online, consults on the partnership model, and pioneered expansion of human rights to include the majority of humanity: women and children. Her The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (Berrett-Koehler, 2007) was hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking.” Transforming Interprofessional Partnerships on healthcare (Sigma Theta Tau International, 2014) won national and international awards. Her recent Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future (co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry; Oxford University Press, 2019) shows how neuroscience supports her findings.

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Rev. Laura George, J.D. & Katherine Kennedy The Oracle Institute & Peace Pentagon HUB

Now more than ever, Earth and all her inhabitants are endangered in multiple, interconnected ways. Tragically, most of the threats we face are manmade and stem from political corruption, corporate greed, and cultural learned helplessness. In fact, the situation has become so dire that it may be too late to reform our broken institutions. Instead, our time may be better spent building the New World we seek by utilizing the best and brightest 21st Century solutions.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.

To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

This year’s Building the New World Conference (“BTNW”) is based on the premise that we must quickly manifest a new timeline by making and modeling the world we seek. The BTNW 2020 organizers are not starry-eyed idealists, however. We’re a collaborative team of Second Tier humans who comprehend the big picture and take to heart the sage advice of Buckminster Fuller.

~Buckminster Fuller

We also wish to continue the legacy of futurist and friend Barbara Marx Hubbard, who was the keynote speaker at BTNW 2015 in Virginia. She believed a New World was synthesizing and organizing, still nascent but preparing to explode!

Barbara dedicated her life to spreading this new story of planetary and human evolution, and she activated Cultural Creatives around the world. We are proud to honor and continue her life’s work.

Barbara Marx Hubbard at the Peace Pentagon 47

Once again, BTNW is structured around the Wheel of CoCreation. This iconic image is a potent, synergistic tool, as it represents all Sectors of Society.”

In addition to the Sectors, we’ve added the HUB to showcase successful Intentional Communities and Indigenous Cultures. The HUB highlights ancient wisdom and groups that are committed to purpose-driven life-styles, deep collaboration, collective ascension, and other cultural experiments.

Kurt Johnson, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Laura George, Philip Hellmich at BTNW 2015

Originally planned as a retreat at the Peace Pentagon in Independence, Virginia, BTNW 2020 is now a Virtual Event due to the corona-virus. It will launch Saturday, September 19, on International Peace Weekend, and the conference will run for seven weeks, concluding with Round Table Discussions on November 1 – just two days before the U.S. Presidential election. Importantly, the presentations in Sector 6 – Justice & Governance – will focus on the Constitution for the Federation of the Earth – a concrete proposal for an integrated world.

BTNW 2020 features two presentations in each Sector, delivered by Social Architects and experts from around the world. Speakers will use a System Theory approach, advocating for transformative, holistic change amongst the interconnected Sectors. As organizers of the event, we encourage people of good conscience and positive action to attend the entire series of live lectures, which will include Q&A time at the end of each session. And the sessions will be recorded, so if you miss one, you can catch it later.

We are delighted that Light on Light magazine co-founder Kurt Johnson will be joining us again at this third BTNW summit in the Spirituality & Religion Sector. Here is a sampling of the other BTNW 2020 Speakers:

 Paul Chappelle, Peace Literacy Institute & Nuclear  Age Peace Foundation  Laura Dickinson, J.E.D.I. Collaborative  Alex & Allyson Grey of CoSM  Swami Agnivesh from India  Oscar winner Yuval Ron  Ken Kitatani, I-Ceed  Mark Donohue, Life Guides  Mindahi Bastida, Center for Earth Ethics  Shama Viola, Federation of Damanhur  Indigenous Grandmother Circle  Stephen Dynako, Social Chrysalis  Ozioma Egwuonwu, BurnBright Lifeworks  Robin Hanson, Future of Humanity Institute  Glen Martin, Earth Constitution Institute

Please join us for this transformational summit, network with your colleagues, make some new friends, and help Shift the Paradigm from: imperialism to Social Democracy; materialism to Altruism; a debt-based monetary system to Universal Basic Income; a global war system to a worldwide Culture of Peace; unsustainable environmental destruction to Resilient Organic Networks; religious separation to the redeeming state of Spiritual Unity!

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BTNW 2015 Round Tables featured: Dada Maheshvarananda, Rev. Robert Zachary, Charles Eisenstein, Robin Hanson, Nina Meyerhof Ricaardoe DiDone, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Glen Martin, Charlotte Hanes, Kurt Johnson

Rev. Laura George, J.D. is the Executive Director of The Oracle Institute, a 501(c)(3) educational charity and spiritual think tank. She manages Oracle’s award-winning publishing house, oversees Oracle Temple Spirituality Salons, and serves as one of the Sages in the Valley of Light micro-community that shares Oracle Campus. Oracle and the Valley of Light are headquartered at the Peace Pentagon along the New River in Independence, Virginia. Laura also is the author of Oracle’s foundational trilogy: The Truth, The Love, and The Light.

Katherine Kennedy is the Interfaith Coordinator at The Oracle Institute. She also leads the Path of the Peacemaker and serves as one of the Sages in the Valley of Light community. She interfaces with Oracle’s partners and affiliates, including United Religions Initiative, the Peace Alliance, and World Beyond War. In her local community, Katie serves as Secretary for the Grayson County, Virginia Democrats.

BTNW Conference Sites www.BTNW.world www.Facebook.com/BTNW.world

The Oracle Institute www.TheOracleInstitute.org www.YouTube.com/OracleInstitute www.Facebook.com/OracleInstitute www.Twitter.com/OracleInstitute www.Instagram.com/OracleInstitute

Peace Pentagon HUB www.PeacePentagon.net www.Facebook.com/PeacePentagon www.Twitter.com/Peace_Pentagon www.Instagram.com/PeacePentagon

Valley of Light Micro-Community www.TheOracleInstitute.org/about-our-community www.Facebook.com/ValleyOfLightCommunity www.Twitter.com/ValleyOfLight www.Instagram.com/ValleyOfLightCommunity 49

CIRCLE FOUR HEALING OURSELVES AND THE PLANET Working with the mind-body-spirit connection, we can heal the whole system.

Excerpt Excerpt from from

Survival, Consciousness, and the One Mind

By Larry Dossey and Barbara Dossey

The One Mind is Timeless The One Mind concept envisions a nonlocal unitary consciousness—that is, a consciousness boundless in space, therefore omnipresent, and infinite in time, therefore immortal and eternal. However, science often overlooks the greatest advantage associated with the One Mind concept: as a physician and nursing scholar, we believe that the terror of physical annihilation has caused more suffering in human history than all the physical diseases combined. The nonlocal One Mind, then, is a potential cure for the greatest of all diseases, the dread of total annihilation with physical death.

Destruction of personhood with physical death is an inescapable part of the materialism package. The cheerleaders of materialism vastly underestimate this enormous cost. Jung viewed it as a vital issue, saying, “The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life.”1 If consciousness is produced by the brain and vanishes with physical death, as materialists insist, then any meaningful relationship to “something infinite” is a chimera. Jung felt so strongly about this issue that he made it a principle in therapy with his patients. “As a doctor,” he said, “I make every effort to strengthen the belief in immortality.”2 Immortality for the mind was a key feature of Nobel laureate and physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s vision: “I venture to call it [the mind] indestructible since it has a peculiar time-table, namely mind is always now. There is really no before and after for the mind. There is only now that includes memories and expectations.”3 Simply put, materialism, mindless consumerism, and environmental debauchery are exacerbated by a denial of immortality. The realization of our essential unity, of a temporally and spatially nonlocal One Mind, is our best hope for our survival on Earth. Reaching for our connections with one another at the deepest emotional-psychological level and with the planet itself will enable us to summon the courage necessary to make the tough choices required to stay alive—to save the Earth and our own skins.

We are at a hinge point in human history. During the twentieth century we took the mind apart. Now we must put it back together. We’ve been taught that our mind is fragmented, that it is divided into the conscious, preconscious, subconscious, unconscious, ego, superego, id, and so on. We are divided not just from within, but also from without, from one another.

Looking through the other end of the telescope, the One Mind reveals that our individual minds are part of a greater whole, a dimension of consciousness that encompasses all mind—past, present, and future: human and nonhuman.

Notes 1. Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Random House, 1965), 325.

2. Carl Jung, Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 13, trans. by R.F.C. Hull (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014), 46.

3. Schrödinger, What Is Life?, 145.

Larry Dossey, MD, a physician of internal medicine, was a co-founder of the Dallas Diagnostic Association. He served as a field battalion surgeon in Vietnam in 1968 to 1969, where he was decorated for valor. He is the author of thirteen books, including Space, Time & Medicine, Recovering the Soul, Healing Words, Reinventing Medicine, The Power of Premonitions, and One Mind. larrydosseymd.com

Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN, is an internationally recognized integrative, holistic nursing pioneer and nurse theorist. She is director of the International Nurse Coach Association (INCA), international co-director of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health, and core faculty of the Integrative Nurse Coach Certificate Program (INCCP), Miami, Florida. She has authored or coauthored twenty-five books, including Holistic Nursing and Nurse Coaching. dosseydossey.com 50

MORE FROM HEALING OURSELVES AND THE PLANET Excerpt from

Chapter 18 – The Noble Future: Becoming Fully Human

By Gordon Dveirin and Joan Borysenko

The capacity to connect is one of the quintessential human qualities. The neurobiology of connection begins in utero. What is the mother eating, drinking, thinking, feeling? Is she safe or in danger? Loved or neglected? After birth, does a child’s primary caretaker respond to their needs? Are they bonded, well-attached?

As a lifelong need, during a pandemic, when we are asked to be socially distant, we see even more clearly how critical connection is at any age.

Strong attachment leads to normal brain development. Intelligence, the capacity of living systems to co-evolve and flourish through challenging conditions, is responsively relational. As the science of interpersonal neurobiology has shown, our hope to create a world of harmony and balance requires optimizing our human development—our ability to empathically connect with, rather than fearfully protect ourselves from one another.

Developing human consciousness, including wisdom and compassion at scale, is now not only a possibility but a transformational movement in progress. The ability to be fully present, deeply interconnected, and able to imaginatively learn our way forward together, is our passport to the noble future that reflects who, in our heart of hearts, we know ourselves truly to be.

Click here for bio on Gordon Dveirin Click here for bio on Joan Borysenko

Excerpt from

Chapter 20 – Conscious Evolution: A Theory We Can Thrive With

By Bruce H. Lipton

We can get to that higher level of evolution but only if we change our rapacious ways. The potential positive future our species can be likened to is the metamorphosis of a butterfly. A caterpillar’s body comprises several billion cells. In the body of the growing caterpillar, the economy is booming, and the cellular community is actively employed. This organism’s voracious appetite leads to it devouring the leaves of the plant on which it is living.

Caterpillar growth slows and eventually comes to an end as the available resources are consumed. Within the pupa, the cells are out of work and their highly structured community begins to fall apart. Specialized imaginal cells within the ensuing chaos provide organizing information and direction to create a different, more sustainable future. Metamorphosis is complete when the unsustainable caterpillar civilization transforms into the ecologically sensitive butterfly civilization.

The parallels are clear. By behaving as a caterpillar, human civilization’s voracious appetite to grow and consume has undermined the environment.

The global crises we face today are Nature’s wake-up call for humans to realize that civilization itself needs to undergo a metamorphosis, so our current incarnation as the environmentally destructive “caterpillar” must transform into a new, sustainable organism: humanity.

Click here for bio on Bruce H. Lipton

Excerpt from

Chapter 21 – Is Wholeness Really a Choice?

By Deepak Chopra™, Author of Total Meditation

When consciousness created something out of nothing, two tracks emerged and separated as the objective and subjective domain. The “real” reality dawns when the illusion of separation is replaced with wholeness. Wholeness lies beyond any kind of split or fragmentation. Wholeness is everything. It is the One, the All, or Brahman, as it was known in Vedic India. Wholeness offers only the possibility of choiceless awareness. In choiceless awareness, you experience yourself as whole: as pure existence and pure consciousness.

Click here for bio on Deepak Chopra™

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INITIATIVES MOBILIZING THE PLANET FOR HEALING

Exploring The Many Dimensions of Peace through Spirit, Dialogue, Art, and Action

By Julian Bailer and Anne-Marie Voorhoeve

The Co-Creating Europe Caravan of Unity. Join us in co-creating a series of events taking place across Europe and beyond.

At this time of unprecedented global challenge and change, we will take collective action for a regeneration for humanity that is rooted in the values of peace, unity and transnational solidarity! https://co-creating-europe.eu/caravan-of-unity/ On the Initiative of Unity Earth, Co-Creating Europe is joining the global Celebration of Peace Weekend 2020 and is dedicated to building up the momentum through this three weeks journey honoring Unity in Diversity by showing up together as a collaborative ecosystem of social change agents.

Let’s connect, inspire, transform and celebrate together.

The Caravan of Unity is not a caravan in a classic sense. Originally used to describe a diverse group of people traveling together by camel or camper van, we define the term caravan in a new and contemporary way.

What travels in our caravan is the energy of peace and the spirit of unity, finding expression through the actions and events of our Europe-wide and global network of members, friends and co-creators during the first three weeks of September 2020 and culminating in the global celebration of World Peace Day on September 21st.

Co-Creating Europe, the host of the Caravan of Unity’s European leg, is a growing network of individuals, initiatives, and organizations from Europe and around the world. Following the initiative of UNITY EARTH and with our partners from The Hague Center for Global Governance, The Missing Kind, and many others, we envision this caravan to grow into one of the largest and most diverse physical and digital collective movements for peace in human history.

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Held by a strong virtual infrastructure and dedicated participants in many nations, cities and regions in Europe and beyond, the Caravan of Unity aims to connect purposeful people and projects to create an intention-based field of consciousness that strengthens unity in diversity. Our vision is based on the realization of the prior unity of all beings: the deep and timeless interconnection that knits us together as one human family. The Caravan of Unity will strive to inspire a shared sense of inner and outer peace, install kind-heartedness as a guiding motif for cooperation, and contribute towards inclusive and just societies at local and transnational levels.

You are invited to co-create this journey with us either by designing your own contribution and project within the caravan or by joining one of the already existing projects. For more info please visit our website and fill in the short registration form on the landing page to receive the newsletter and invitations to our regular onboarding calls.

Join us at: https://co-creating-europe.eu/caravan-of-unity/.

Dr. Anne-Marie Voorhoeve is founder and strategic connector of The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence and a core team member of Integral City Meshworks. She is a strategist, social alchemist, social architect, innovative co-creator, experienced facilitator, coach and ECOintention Practitioner. She contributes to the integral transformation of society into a regenerative world, with focus on the heart intelligence and rebalance of the masculine and feminine. She works internationally, designing and supporting complex multi-stakeholder projects that commit to meaningful, ambitious goals. She contributes to many networks and initiatives, for example as chief creative director for the Club of Budapest International Network, as core team member of the WholeWorld-View & Unity Community, of Co-Creating Europe, of City Transformers and the Youth Assembly project, as partner in Living Cities Network, Humanity Rising, Loving Classroom-Loving World and the Infinite World Game. She is ambassador of One Humanity Institute. Combining her creativity with strategic connecting, she initiated the Caravan of Unity Europe, empowering people to collaborate. As co-convenor in World Unity Week she curated multiple convergence rooms, including Meshworking Cities and Eco-Regions. She is at the heart of design and strategy of the follow up, the 8 Days UP Convergence (Unity+Peace) and Peace Weekend - 3 days #unitetheworld. Anne-Marie is recipient of the World Forum Peace Prize for Communities in 2017. In 2019 she was inducted as an Evolutionary Leader and awarded Integral City Meshworker of the Year 2019. More at: www.thehaguecenter.org

Julian Baller is a cultural activist, scholar, and managing director of Co-Creating Europe, an international network of social change agents with a grounding in contemporary spirituality. He taught for several years at the Department of Cultural History and Theory at the HU Berlin, and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University NYC in 2018/19. He is also a core team member of Integrales Forum. In fall 2020 he is Co-Creating the Caravan of Unity. A European contribution to one of the largest collective actions for peace in human history together with a wonderful team as part of an initiative of UNITY EARTH.

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Being the Change

By Terry Patten

From January to December 2019, over 150 people from 13 countries engaged in a yearlong social experiment called Living in a New Republic of the Heart.

Together our group made a radical commitment to learn to “be the change” that could catalyze the whole-systems transformation necessary to navigate humanity’s extreme civilizational crisis.

That’s a lofty intention. We knew we could only hope to succeed incompletely.

But we would publish the results, and whatever we learned—both successes and failures—would be useful input for other groups attempting to be living laboratories of holistic transformation.

The resulting book is called Being the Change: Discoveries from a Yearlong Living Laboratory and there is a website for the book www.beingthechange2019.org where a PDF of the book can be accessed free of charge.

We foresaw that a new field of inquiry was spontaneously emerging and that our experiment represented both an exemplar and an advancement of it.

We call this new field “Intentional Cultural Evolution.” People all over the world are seeking to awaken together, to cooperate in new ways that involve new depths of friendship, new agreements, new practices. Whole-systems transformation will require entirely new ways of being human, individually and together. We saw that this important new field will not advance primarily via abstract academic research, but rather via action-inquiry—learning by doing, iterating, and rapidly evolving best practices.

Our experiment and this book seek to contribute to this field in two ways: (1) By “being the change” ourselves—learning by doing; and (2) by sharing what we learn. This volume reports our best practices and learnings in a format designed to be useful to others. We deeply hope it may inspire and inform your own experiments in intentional cultural evolution.

Terry Patten is a leading voice in the emerging fields of integral evolutionary practice, leadership and spirituality. He speaks and consults internationally—inspiring, challenging, and connecting leaders and institutions worldwide. Terry has worked for over three decades as a philosopher, activist, coach, and teacher. He was a part of the core team at Integral Institute that developed Integral Life Practice and was the senior writer and co-author, with Ken Wilber, of Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. He hosts the acclaimed online teleseminar series Beyond Awakening: The Future of Spiritual Practice, where he has engaged leading-edge conversations bringing higher consciousness to human affairs with dozens of the best-known thinkers and spiritual teachers of our time. In 2008 he founded Bay Area Integral, the San Francisco nexus of the budding international Integral movement. His 8-session online course, Integral Spiritual Practice guides students step-by-step in establishing a heart-centered do-able daily integral practice. www.terrypatten.com 54

Spiritual Practices for Healing in This Unique Time

By Kurt Johnson and Denise Scotto

These are unique and challenging times worldwide. With the pandemic, the core UNITY message of Yoga and its unparalleled resources for healing and well-being are more important than ever.

These times’ unique situations draw even more attention to the work, for over three years now, that Light on Light has done with the International Day of Yoga Committee at the United Nations in creating the annual special edition issues for World Yoga Day. That annual issue records and illustrates both the virtues and benefits of Yoga practice itself but also the critical roles that Yoga communities play in many cultures around the world.

In many cultures worldwide that have a millennial Yoga heritage Yoga communities provide essential services and networks critical for women, children, general and specific health needs, water and sanitation, food insecurity, leisure, and so many more needs. Each year the International Day of Yoga Committee at the United Nations is able to produce what amounts to a “global report” on how Yoga is serving the world.

In her introduction to this year’s annual special edition issue, UN Committee Chair, Denise Scotto, also an Evolutionary Leader, elaborated about how much the COVID pandemic and resulting economical hardship and turmoil has only increased the demands for essential services in may cultures from the Yoga community. She also addressed the overarching dimension of Yoga being one of inclusivity. Joining together in unity, our human family can help each other as we experience these challenges—often multiple onesduring an especially uncertain period in time.

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Denise’s attention to healing typifies that of the Evolutionary Leaders themselves who, in their August publication, The Edge presented this amazing array of articles on healing ourselves and the planet.

This is why the program that was done by the UN IDY Committee with Light on Light this year, during World Unity Week, on Yoga Day, June 21st, we concentrated on sharing Yoga healing practices, by video, and we had over 8000 viewers.

These were some of the great healing practices from the Sikh (and other) traditions, known as “Pittra”, ancient practices (“Kriyas”) for healing and grief and balancing of the essential “Tattvas”—the basic elements of life that effect every aspect of our being. These observances for grief, loss, or “missing” loves ones, are so revered their representations occur across Eastern art and statuary. You can find these at Sacred Stories Media.

Healing Grief with Kundalini Yoga

with Karuna learn.sacredstoriesmedia.com

Click here for bio on Kurt Johnson

Click here for bio on Denise Scotto

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The Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns at the United Nations

by Cathy Towle

In honor of the anniversary of the United Nations, the Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns was created to provide a focus on a more ethical, sustainable and peaceful way to address our common challenges to achieving progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Week’s activities recognize that spirituality and adherence to universal values, such as those expressed in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are key to providing solutions to global concerns and leaving no one behind.

CSVGC-NY

The Week of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns takes place at UN headquarters with activities around the world, during the United Nations anniversary in October, to inspire and generate collective engagement in an annual worldwide celebration. The NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns (CSVGC-NY) initiated the Spirit of the United Nations Award to recognize and acknowledge individuals whose work is an expression of the core UN principles. This annual ceremony honors persons who have done exemplary work promoting spirituality and values at the United Nations and beyond and who are widely recognized and highly respected for their collaborative work. Our honorees last year were: H.E. Ms. Rhonda King, Amb. of St. Vincent and Grenadines to the UN; Hon. Elliott Harris, UN Asst Sec Gen for Economic Development; Mr. Fred Nyabera, Director, End Child Poverty, Arigatou International; and Ms. Jillian Abballe, UN Advocacy Officer, Anglican Commission at UN. This year, since UN Headquarters is closed to events, we will be hosting a series of events and webinars online celebrating past Spirit of the UN Awardees and engaging our community in discussion. We hope you join us and look to our website for details of how to participate – www.csvgc-ny. org. We look forward to your participation to amplify this important work. CSVGC-NY is a Committee of the Conference of NGO’s in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations.

Cathy Towle is an interfaith minister, shamanic reiki master, medical intuitive, and spiritual wellbeing coach. She is chair of the NGO Committee for Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns – NY where she creates programming and advocacy work focused on supporting Human Rights at the United Nations. Cathy’s private practice is informed by training in her ancestral traditions, as well as the practical aspects of coaching and healing.

Her work encourages engagement in intuitive development, learning from nature and the spirit world, healing trauma, and managing the stress and anxiety of everyday living. www.cathytowle.com

THE VISTAR METHOD for Healing and Peace

by Victoria and Ron Friedman

At VISTAR we are creating programs for healing and peace utilizing “The Vistar Method” (www.vistarfoundation.org). We are looking forward to sharing our new website which will feature, “Evolutionary Meetings: The Vistar Method” which is also our new book.

Vistar is a non-profit educational organization founded in 1994 by Dr. Ron Friedman and Victoria Friedman. Vistar is dedicated to the power and potential of Collective Consciousness for collective awakening, co-creation and conscious communication. Ron and Victoria offer teleconferences and workshops on The Vistar Method, a conscious structured meeting process, Vistar Awakening Circles and Co- Creative large and small-scale innovative events that inspire and involve people and focus on connectivity and enlightened culture. It was featured in Light on Light’s special issue on Transformative Communities.

VISTAR continues its READATATION offerings, our SPIRIT CLUB for Children, “Poetry Non-Duality” Meditation Gatherings, Opportunities for Spirit Doodling, and the Nature Photos Meditation Presentations and more!

Victoria Friedman and Ron Friedman, MD are Co-Founders of Vistar Foundation (1994), dedicated to Conscious Communication, Creativity and Culture. Their upcoming book EVOLUTIONARY MEETINGS: The Vistar Method launches in Fall 2020. Victoria is the founder of “Spirit Club for Children”, author of SPIRIT DOODLING: The Effortless Expression of No-Mind and Florissa The Fish.

Ron is the author of two poetry books, unaccustomed looking and forever’s looking.

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CIRCLE FIVE INTEGRATING SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY We utilize research and education to awaken, elevate, and evolve consciousness.

Excerpt from

By Loch Kelly

The Current Science of Awakening

The Effortless Mindfulness Solution Traditionally, deliberate mindfulness refers to two primary forms of practice: shamatha, translated as calm abiding, and vipassana, translated as insight meditation. Researchers have extensively studied both types of deliberate mindfulness in recent years and they refer to shamatha as “focused attention” and vipassana as “open monitoring.”

Recently, a third type of mindfulness, called “nondual awareness,” referring to the wholeness of all things, has been added to the research studies as a form of effortless mindfulness. In a recent research study, only the nondual type balanced external and internal networks with the experience of being undistracted without effort, aware of what’s going on inside and outside as a continuous, seamless flow state.

When one of my teachers, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, first came to the United States from Nepal, he noticed that many meditators here seemed to be practicing what he called “stupid meditation,” referring to “doing only shamatha practice of watching your breath.” This kind of meditation suppresses chattering thoughts, but it reduces your alertness and ability to fully function. Although forms of mindfulness like “focused attention’ that are heavy on concentration are relaxing, it’s not the type of relaxation accessed in the alert intelligence of awake awareness.

The researcher Zoran Josipovic concluded, “Our results lend further evidence to the claims that nondual awareness meditations are different from both focused attention and open monitoring meditations. While focused attention and open monitoring meditations are traditionally regarded as “constructed” states created through deployment of specific attentional strategies, nondual awareness meditations are thought not to involve intentional effort, but to be based

on identifying a reflexive awareness that is regarded as “unconstructed” (Mipam and Hopkins, 2006)…Nondual meditation is different from both focused-attention and open-monitoring meditations in that it enables an atypical state of mind in which extrinsic and intrinsic experiences are increasingly synergistic rather than competing.”1 Effortless mindfulness, therefore, balances our brain’s activity so that we are equally aware of what happens inside and outside. We are in full command of our abilities and awareness, while perception become uncommonly acute. Time may seem to slow down, and there is no sense of rush. This so important because the next stage of mindfulness meditation also marks the next stage of human development.

We are calming our everyday mind while upgrading to a new level of mind, which we may not have realized even existed or was possible for us to access. Surrendering, letting go of egoidentification, can open us to greater resources and a new foundation of identity. Letting go can help people achieve difficult goals more easily. During meditation or prayer practices, feeling less ego-centered while experiencing a boundless unity is often reported. Along with an increase in the positive qualities of unity, alertness, clarity, boundlessness, freedom, joy, love, and connection.

When we use spiritual practices like these, our sense of identity is untied from the physical-boundary program and begins to experience our true nature’s boundless condition. By opening and looking from spacious awareness, we feel even safer and more relaxed, sensitive, open, and responsive—like a tai chi master.

Notes 1. Zoran Josipovic, Ilan Dinstein, Jochen Weber, and David Heeger, “Influence of Meditation on Anti-correlated Networks in the Brain,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, January 2012, https://www. frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00183.

Loch Kelly, MDiv, LCSW, is an educator, author, meditation teacher, psychotherapist, recognized leader in the field of consciousness and awakening, and the founder of the nonprofit Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. His work is to help people access awakening as the next natural stage of human development. He is the author of the award-winning books Shift into Freedom and The Way of Effortless Mindfulness. lochkelly.org 58

MORE FROM INTEGRATING SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY Excerpt from

Chapter 22 – The Power of Eight

By Lynne McTaggart

Working in large or small groups and doing something altruistic activates the vagus nerve, which connects with all the communication systems involved with caretaking. It slows down heart rate, calms the effects of any fight-or-flight autonomic nervous system activity, and initiates the release of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a role in love, trust, intimacy, kindness, and compassion.

Increased oxytocin levels also have a marked healing effect on the body: they lower inflammation, boost the immune system, aid digestion, lower blood pressure, heal wounds faster, and even repair damage to the heart after a heart attack. If oxytocin is considered the “love hormone,” the vagus nerve is the “love nerve.”

Other evidence from neuroscience studies that scientists have carried out on Power of Eight groups shows that members of the group undergo major brain-wave changes akin to those of a Buddhist monk during a state of ecstatic prayer: a feeling of blissful oneness. Intending in a group is a fast track to the miraculous. The powerfully transformational mechanisms at work appear to be an amazing mirror effect and the power of altruism.

Focusing on healing someone else often heals the healer.

Click here for bio on Lynne McTaggart

Excerpt from

Chapter 24 – Awakening to Our Limitless Minds

By J.J. Hurtak and Desiree Hurtak

If consciousness connects us with all surrounding energy fields, then we also have infinite thought possibilities throughout the universe. If consciousness is the hidden variable and multiple dimensions exist, we can also see ourselves as multidimensional beings capable of building bridges, not just to any object in the universe but to any thought throughout the myriad dimensions. A practical application of this would mean that we are all multidimensional transmitters of information through a higher state of consciousness, generated originally from a Divine Universal Mind.

The Buddhists call this self-realization, which ends the separation between the personal “I” and the collective “we.” Others, like Teilhard de Chardin, call it the noosphere—that is, the arena (sphere) in which human consciousness and thoughts influence the way biological life evolves.

Click here for bio on J.J. Hurtak Click here for bio on Desiree Hurtak

Excerpt from

Chapter 26 – A WholeWorld View to Guide the Evolution of Consciousness

By Jude Currivan

While the process of remembering unity is unique to each, all our paths are on the same journey of inner and outer evolution. The choices each and all of us make will determine the fate of our species and potentially all life on Earth. We can choose to become unity-aware beings, acting local and feeling global, to experience and embody wholeness. We are indeed in this together. We always have been.

Locally, people and communities are embarking on quests and practices of “sacred normality”—reconnecting to each other, Gaia, and the universal pulse of evolution that flows through us. A recent example of this shows up in how we have come together: caring for the environment, initiating healing circles, and social connecting through numerous actions of kindness, focused intention, and even meditative care through the time of the COVID-19 virus that has swept around the globe.

We are remembering what it means to cocreate lives of meaning, purpose, and responsibility. Communities are rediscovering their ability to find local solutions to global challenges. Crisis is breeding opportunity and innovation. We are waking up, growing up, cleaning up, showing up—and progressively linking up and lifting up in waves of cocreative cooperation and empowered synergies.

Click here for bio on Jude Currivan 59

EVENTS & INITIATIVES FOR INTEGRATING SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY

Prosocial Spirituality Prosocial Spirituality: Where Evolutionary Science Meets Contemplative Inquiry

By Kate Sheehan Roach

Humanity has entered a new era. The old hierarchical, competitive, dog-eat-dog power dynamics are giving way to more complex, collaborative forms of leadership. Simultaneously, a tremendous wave of previously untapped potential is being released as more and more people begin to bring their entire being more fully to their workplaces, to their local and global communities, to non-profit engagement and social activism, to the arts, science, and medicine, to family dynamics and religious life—to name just a few places this sea change is manifesting.

While there is very real turmoil associated with these dynamic times, the opportunity for positive change is equally real. But are we ready for a new group dynamic to emerge? If so, we must ask ourselves what will replace the archaic systems and structures crumbling before our eyes.

What’s next for our species? Will we come together, or will we tear one another apart? Prosocial Spirituality addresses these questions in the context of a new evolutionary model designed to transform the way groups are formed, led, and engage with one another.

Prosocial Spirituality is a hybrid model unlike any other, utilizing collaborative training sessions based on Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom’s Eight Core Design Principles and interspiritual pioneer Wayne Teasdale’s Nine Elements of a Universal Spirituality. A new scientific/spiritual paradigm is emerging, and along with it, we’re developing a new group framework that optimizes change for the better. Ostrom’s 8 Core Design Principles—group success markers she discovered through expansive, innovative research and fieldwork for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics—and Teasdale’s 9 Elements, which emerged from decades of interreligious dialogue, together form the infrastructure that allows groups to evolve more consciously.

Trainings are designed to help groups function more harmoniously, efficiently, and meaningfully by applying both scientific and spiritual principles to decision-making, conflict resolution, clarity of purpose, and interactions with other groups. Scientifically-derived methodologies and practices help groups develop the 360° vista they need to identify their own blind spots and address them with agreed-upon proactive solutions.

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Prosocial World has successfully applied Prosocial training with groups in settings as diverse and varied as Ebola virus containment efforts in Sierra Leone, the Museum of Australian Democracy, and New York public schools. Prosocial Spirituality merges these groundbreaking organizational methodologies with parallel principles and applications drawn from the deep well of contemplative inquiry.

Evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson and educational psychologist Paul Atkins are currently leading Prosocial facilitation courses, while Contemplative Life founder Jeff Genung and I are developing a next-generation curriculum in Prosocial Spirituality. Our experiential narrative approach expands the contemplative dimension already built into Prosocial’s original format.

Specifically geared toward spiritual and religious groups in the midst of seismic cultural change, this new paradigm has arrived just in time to prevent them from scattering to the wind, even as participation in organized religion continues to wane.

But, in truth, there’s really nothing new about the substance of Prosocial World or Prosocial Spirituality. These programs simply tap into intuitive, innate, deeply-held attributes and desired behaviors that make up the common ground of our humanity. The real genius lies in the scientifically-derived methodologies that are not only inspired by evolutionary models, but are constantly evolving themselves.

Scientific and spiritual outliers stand shoulder to shoulder on the shores of time—facing the future as it appears on the horizon—where science and spirituality touch like the sea and sky. Are you ready for what’s coming? Are you ready for real change? Are you ready to change how we change?

If so, please join us in this experiment in conscious evolution we’re calling Prosocial Spirituality.

Changing the way we change.

Kate Sheehan Roach was honored to craft the curriculum and serve as facilitator for the very first Prosocial Spirituality group training. She began her editorial career in the history division of Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press and later served as founding editor of Contemplative Journal and managing editor of the Spirituality channel at Patheos.com. She’s now Director of Content for ContemplativeLife.org, a founding core team member of Transformation365.org, and a certified Centering Prayer facilitator. Kate serves on national boards for Contemplative Outreach and United Religions Initiative, and she’s a long-time member of a Quaker meeting called Holy Experiment and a founding member of an interspiritual community called Contemplative Communion. She holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College and an MA from the University of Connecticut. She lives on the edge of Philadelphia. You can reach her at kate@contemplativelife.org.

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CIRCLE SIX NEW FRONTIERS BEYOND SPACE & TIME From outer space to inner space, we view the cosmos as a fully integrated whole.

Excerpt from

Humanity’s Change of Heart

By Claudia Welss

A Synergistic Change of Heart The quality of a connected, harmonious whole is called coherence. It appears everywhere, at every scale, including the atoms in our bodies and the stars in the sky. In biological systems, coherence means the regulation of life processes is efficient and functioning optimally. The HeartMath Institute (HMI) uses the term “heart coherence” to describe when this optimal functioning and well-being is driven by the heart.1 In this state, heart-brain interactions are facilitated, brain hemisphere activity becomes more balanced, and the body’s oscillatory intelligences (such as the cardiovascular, endocrine, respiratory, and nervous systems) attune to one another. This happens because the heart is the body’s master rhythm maker. When the heart’s rhythms produce an ordered waveform pattern (visible in heart rate variability biofeedback), it’s sending a signal that orchestrates greater coherence in the body. HMI refers to this waveform as the physiological signature of Love at the core of the human system because it naturally emerges when we experience feelings of love, gratitude, compassion and other regenerative emotions that bring us a sense of well-being. This psychophysiological, or mind-body coherence is our birthright, but because of the daily stresses of life, we have to choose to reclaim it.

Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton has said that intelligence emerges when a system connects with itself. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts—the very definition of synergy. Similarly, heart coherence facilitates greater information flow within the body, promoting an inner synergy that allows for more complex functioning to emerge, such as enhanced cognition and creativity, expanded perception and intuition, and psychophysiological resilience to stressors. By contrast, stress states like fear, anxiety, and other emotions that become degenerative when chronic cause the heart’s rhythms to produce a disordered waveform pattern, initiating a lessening of coherence or harmony in the human system.

Because HMI has scientifically demonstrated that we can intention-ally increase the coherence of our heart signals through heart-focused breathing and inviting authentic regenerative emotions (a finding so significant that it was published in the American Journal of Cardiology), we know experiencing greater individual coherence is a choice—one, it turns out, with benefits beyond our own biology. When we’re more coherent within ourselves, we become more available to cohere with others and with the world. Our perception expands as we take in new information due to our enlivened connection with larger wholes.

We’ve all experienced degrees of freedom (no matter how small) in how we choose to perceive and respond to the world, often referred to as having a “change of heart.” Coherence increases this freedom. His Holiness the Dalai Lama advises, “When the world looks bad, look at a flower. There is another truth.”2 Even when there is no physical flower, the heart can connect us to this simultaneous truth, and that larger perception shifts our biology and our sense of reality. Our ecosystems of self, other, and world become what I call evosystems—ecosystems that evolve by meeting life’s new demand of synergy through the conscious self-awareness of our own coherence.

By reclaiming our innate coherence, we begin to see what was previously unseen, and realize what was previously unrealized. Just as our hearts orchestrate greater inner coherence, our own coherence helps orchestrate coherence in the external world.

Notes 1. Rollin McCraty and Maria A. Zayas, “Cardiac Coherence, Self-Regulation, Autonomic Stability, and Psychosocial Well-Being,” Frontiers in Psychology Journal 29, September (2014): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01090/full.

2. The Science of Mindfulness & Compassion, a private conversation attended by the author in New Delhi hosted by the Templeton Foundation, organized by the Fetzer Institute in collaboration with The Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion Based Ethics at Emory University, April, 2019.

Claudia Welss is chairman of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and with the Global Coherence Initiative. She invited HeartMath to coach corporate executives while director of executive programs at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and to join the Digital Earth/ Digital Mind initiative for the International Symposium for Digital Earth. She is also on the board of Space for Humanity and is Chair of the Invest In Yourself Working Group at NEXUS Global Network. noetic.org 62

MORE FROM NEW FRONTIERS BEYOND SPACE & TIME Excerpt from

Chapter 28 – Liberating Human Potential

By Eben Alexander and Karen Newell

In the worldview of metaphysical idealism, the outer world is a reflection of our inner world, and science is rapidly moving toward confirming that reality. It is both a birthright and an imperative that we individually take steps to more fully understand and consciously manage our inner world. By developing the ability to go within using meditation, centering prayer, or some other method, we learn to identify with the inner observer—the part of us that is connected to the more expanded one mind. It is critical to evaluate limiting belief systems, manage distracting thoughts, and release reactive emotions. A concerted practice will bring clarity, providing an opportunity to instill a neutral state, unencumbered by worries and anxieties. This leads to alignment with the grander essence of who we truly are, rather than simply identifying only as the roles we play.

We all seem to be connected through the binding force of pure, unconditional love, as those with firsthand experience directly report through any sort of spiritually transformative experience. That same unconditional love, so comforting to the experiencer, provides the empirical evidence of the nature of that primordial consciousness—love is at the core of our existence.

Click here for bio on Eben Alexander Click here for bio on Karen Newell

Excerpt from

Chapter 30 – Dawn of the New Day

By Reverend Christian Sorensen

What if a new evolutionary story is emerging, telling of the birth of a new world? Let’s soulfully activate our hearts to participate in the conscious evolution that is unfolding.

Like earlier times that called for a leap in consciousness, this time is challenging each of us to wake up to a higher inner vision of what’s possible, to live in harmony with this earth and each other. The new global story is of a collective new thought coming through each of us, that binds us together in support of one another.

The global heart and soul of humanity is awakening us from our apathy and ignorance. It is calling us to mindfulness so that we become more mindful of all that we see, think, and do. It’s time to collectively recognize the potential in this transformative moment. It is a fertile time, and mindfulness helps us befriend the greater vision.

We must spend time within this resonant field so we can be a more effective part of a great mobilization taking place right now. Sacred activism, passion in action, is underway. It is the energy of a mother defending her child: a proactive, unstoppable birthing; a realization of the interconnectedness of all living things

Click here for bio on Rev. Christian Sorensen

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NEW FRONTIERS EVENTS & INITIATIVES

The technology of Cyberspace Offers Entire New Frontiers for Community & Transformation

What’s the UP Convergence 2020? What’s UP?

by Jon Ramer with Becky J. Suzik

Inspired by the 200+ partners and presenters during June’s World UNITY Week (WUW), the UP Convergence is an 8-Day Multi-Zoom Global Summit culminating in a 3-day Peace Weekend. The Summit begins 9/11 and continues through 9/18 when Peace Weekend begins and completes on 9/21, the International Day of Peace.

Many partners including Unity Earth, SINE Network, Unify, Uplift, Cocreating Europe, We the World, Humanity Rising, and many others are discovering a new platform to convene and showcase the insights, strategies and tools needed to rise together and #UniteTheWorld to co-create a world that works for everyone.

The UP Convergence gathers like-minded thought leaders, unity and peace activists, affirming participants, presenters and change agents committed to learning, collaborating, and activating the empowering and transformative solutions to co-create a safe and just world.

The UP Convergence builds upon The Convergence Magazine 2018 issue titled: “Waking Up, Growing Up, Cleaning Up, Showing Up, Linking Up, Lifting Up” and welcomes all voices in a shared expression of radical love and inclusivity.

“Remain true to yourself and move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Convergence Rooms, Stewards and Presenters The UP Convergence organizes and hosts a collection of Convergence Rooms using Trello -- a web-based visual organization system enabling participants to review each room’s presentations and help select their attendance schedule and access on-demand programming. Live programming will take place in a Zoom room so participants can join and engage with the presenters and other participants during the summit.

Each Convergence Room is organized by multiple Room Stewards who help schedule, support and produce the Room’s offerings. UP Convergence welcomes, trains and supports new contributors wishing to support a room’s programming.

There will be many room themes to choose to present or participate in including the themes presented by the 11 Days of Global Unity: Unity, Interdependence, Environment, Economic Justice, Health, Children and Youth, Women, Human Rights, Freedom, Disarmament, and Peace.

Open Space Technology Forums In addition to Convergence Rooms we will host Open Space Technology (OST) Forums. OST is a participant-driven way of holding a meeting intended to generate ideas, stimulate deep thinking and meaningful conversations. It begins with a framing question, which for WUW was initially “What is needed to mobilize a world peace movement?” During seven OST sessions many participants and OS facilitators gathered in one Zoom room.

Open Space Sessions are designed to connect and empower participants through a shared experience and group learning.

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Multi-Zoom Convergence: Sessions and Presentations

SINE Network and SINE Waves SINE (Synergized Impact Network Exchange) is a global alliance of social change innovators committed to behavior change at scale through collaborative learning, innovation, and unprecedented, unified action. To amplify the presentations during the UP Convergence, SINE Waves autoshare the presentations on our syndicated network.

World UNITY Week was an unprecedented global event in the truest sense of the word. Using social media we shared hundreds of presentations that engaged and connected thousands of people across the globe in real time. Zoom technology combined with social media reach experienced by committed participants enabled the stream of ideas and content to connect with like-minded people--content dedicated to worldchanging, world healing ideas and solutions.

You can get involved and check out on-demand programming here http://peaceweekend.org Here are a number of WUW participants comments: WUW Survey Reflection Highlights ●

Ground breaking, conscious, loving, family, home, and love.

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Got goosebumps... that in reality if we set out of our comfort zone we can build all the necessary bridges of trust.

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This was a life changing experience. It provided an amplified view into the immense and emerging GOOD that is happening in the world.

It gave me hope in a time of tremendous darkness. ...and, it provided a path to additional resources and potential collaborations to magnify GOOD and light-bringing.

Totally off the charts, awesome, profound experience of heart coherence globally with soul family. Powerful, transformative and deeply healing!

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Transformational and life changing.

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Showed me the power of interconnecting digitally.

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This is certainly a more eco-friendly way of holding a mega event with minimum.carbon footprint, waste generation.

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Timely, on the cutting edge, inspiring.

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Uplifting and truly affirming that there is collectively elevated energy, ample resources and knowledge to raise the consciousness of humanity and create a unified future that supports harmony and peace.

I felt many networks working for unity in different ways were connecting and interacting, and sharing each other’s very useful experience.

More information including participant and presenter registration for UP Convergence can be found at www.peaceweekend.org. Event participants can access on-demand recordings of UP Convergence, Peace Weekend and World UNITY Week recorded events.

Jon Eliot Ramer is an entrepreneur, civic leader, inventor, and musician. He is a co-founder of several collaborative technology companies including ELF Technologies, Inc., whose main solution. He launched the International Campaign for Compassionate Cities. In 2012, Ramer conceived of and produced the “Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest” in response to a challenge from the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky. Over 18 million people have been served as part of the Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest. In 2018, Ramer formed SINE (Synergized Impact Network Exchange) which pioneers innovative and amplified usages of web-internet capabilities and possibilities.

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THE

CONVERSATION Co-Creating a New Kind of Peace Light on Light, with Peter Melton

World Unity Week--which has now moved into Peace Weekend, demonstrated that during the global lockdowns of the COVID pandemic, thousands (if not millions) of persons can—and want to—gather on-line in thousands of hours of online conversation. The purposes of these conversations are vast, as Jon Ramer’s articles points out. They range from the need to maintain the required discourse and education of the world’s day to day life to the realization that personally useful, and gratifying, discussions can now be had with people all over the world.

Lockdowns obviously have amplified this realization.

One of the results of the World Unity Week activities of online program dissemination by SINE and other networks was Peter Melton’s creation of “The Conversation”—the idea, also now widely engaged in by many others, that providing a “Zoom Room” for people 24-7 will bring some rather astounding results re: participation. Light on Light had a chat with Peter and, especially with the comment that “The Conversation” seems quite like the “100th Monkey” effect, it’s interesting to hear what regular “Joe Public” people are thinking as they come together in these 24-7 Zoom Rooms to discuss whatever is on their minds and heart.

“We are all saying, “I am doing my best to remember and from that ONE LOVE, from that UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS, we can act together, peacefully on the planet. The COVID 19 pandemic is helping us realize that what we do really does affect others. And beyond that, we are living into The Golden Rule 2.0 which states– “Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you.” In my opinion, we must work together through all aspects of life to steer ourselves toward a new way of being alive on this planet. We are shifting our lives, we are changing what we eat, we are shifting our relationship to the natural world, we are changing the way we do business, we are shifting our consumption and consumerism habits, changing the way we educate, the way we learn and ultimately, we are becoming a kinder more caring holistically oriented species.

And, as we act quickly in this present moment, in a globally coordinated effort, we give ourselves the best chance to continue to love each other, our planet-mates and our Earthly home. We are all dancing to the same beat, we are all notes in this ONE SONG, the UNI-Verse!”

Let’s hope, as Peter says: There is a new sign of the times and it’s called The Unity Sign!

You can reach out to Peter and The Conversation at the Zoom Transformational Portal at currently convening “Conversations that Matter” everyday, Noon to Midnight (PDT).

Peter says that all of them appear to agree on some basics—basics that can give us a lot of hope about human nature and perhaps also about the future. He says of this conversation: “We must change direction quickly or our systems will continue to break down and then collapse. In addition to the major threats to our way of life and our entire species, we are also threatening the natural world we live through and the lives of all our planet-mates too! We need a change of heart, a consciousness shift, we need to become The 100th Monkey, all of us light workers and emerging leaders must work together to turn this thing around! We need to remember and act as though “We’re all in this together”.

He says: “We are co-creating a new kind of peace movement. Actually, we are moving past the idea of two sides needing to get along, we are remembering that we are all one family, sharing one planet, and co-creating one shared future.“ Then he brings up the new “Unity Sign” which in these times he says means:

Peter Melton, with a decades-longhistory in event creation and promotion, is a creative visionary, storyteller, author of “Fables of Unity” including his first release, “Waves of Oneness - two waves remembering they are one” and The Golden Rule 2.0. He is the founder of The Unity Sign and also the co-founder of The Conversation. Learn more at https://petermelton.com/unity-sign/ or reach out directly to Peter.Melton3@gmail.com and https://www.facebook.com/TheUnitySign/.

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The Global Coherence Pulse — Creating Islands of Coherence

By Claudia Welss

Ilya Priogene, the Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist, demonstrated that when complex systems are far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence can shift the entire system to a higher order. This is one of the main scientific inspirations of the Global Coherence Pulse (“Pulse”) for Pulsing the Planet with heart coherence.

The Pulse is a free and open citizen-science initiative and social collaboration, representing a meta-network of aligned communities and organizations and backed by a scientific collaboration that includes a growing global network of sophisticated sensors and social metrics, coming together to create a tipping point in global consciousness and help science tell a new story — one of the deep interconnectedness of humanity with each other, with Earth and with all life. The star of this new story is Love, and everyone is the main event.

HeartMath Institute’s Global Coherence Initiative (GCI) is another main source of scientific inspiration for the PULSE, which is built with the art and science of heart coherence at its core. HeartMath has conducted decades of scientific research demonstrating that the heart is the most powerful source of energetic coherence in the body, and that we can intentionally create this natural state of optimal wellbeing and performance in ourselves through heart-focused breathing and inviting sustained feelings of love, gratitude, compassion —any authentic, regenerative emotion. Over time, higher levels of personal coherence move from being an occasional state we experience to an enduring trait. The “discovery” of this conscious ability was so significant that it was published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Importantly, the benefits of heart coherence are not limited to ourselves. Community use of the free social Global Coherence App and optional personal HRV sensor allow for the tracking how coherence scales from personal to social and even planetary systems by monitoring changes in the global networks of sensitive GCI magnetometers and Global Consciousness Project (GCP) 2.0’s Random Number and Quantum Noise Generators (a collaboration between GCI, GCP and and the Institute of Noetic Sciences, or IONS) that correlate with our large-group coherence pulses. On deck: new social metrics and a Global Tree Monitoring Network! These networks will allow us to observe the real-world impacts of our coherent human energetics in ways that could shift the current scientific paradigm.

Besides the above organizations, aligned and partnering organizations include the Resonance Science Foundation, UNIFY, 1440 Multiversity, Source of Synergy/Evolutionary Leaders Circle, UNITY EARTH, Ubiquity University, Global Purpose Movement, Awake TV, Earthdance, Coherence Hotspot, SINE Network, WholeWorld View, THRIVE and a growing list of many others.

Last year, the PULSE and partners declared August 1 “Global Coherence Day.” On August 1st, 2020, thousands of people joined together to generate waves of heart-centered coherence and intentionally Pulse the Planet at synchronized intervals throughout the day. To support the intention, three free 2-hour virtual Pulse sessions were offered, each including inspiring music, coherence related content and a global coherence pulse. Presenters 67

including Teresa Collins, Claudia Welss, Rollin McCraty, Nassim Haramein, Manose Newa, Dirk Terpstra and Hilary Davies encouraged participants to “claim their coherence,” and were followed in the evening by a “Soul Salon” coherence-building celebration with Jess Magic and other “heartists.”

Global Coherence Day was then followed by a free, month-long (4 consecutive Saturdays with daily practice encouraged in between) Global Coherence Pulse Experience (“PulseX”), to allow everyone to continue exploring embodiment and pulsing heart-centered coherence together into the field. The conscious choice to collectively build “islands of coherence” allowed us to experience how this choice not only impacts our personal health and well-being, but the health and well-being of the entire planet and the whole of life. Presenters in PulseX included Gregg Braden on SuperCycle 2020, Jude Currivan and Jane Corbett on Think Cosmic, Feel Global, Act Local, Marshall Lefferts on Causing Harmony, Kimberley Gamble on Thriving, Joe Dispenza and Rollin McCraty on Coherent Heart-Brain Interactions and Claudia Welss on Coherence and the Overview Effect. More heartists joined to support sustained coherence, with Bella Gaia helping close the whole experience with a stunning Overview Effect performance.

This article went to print for Light on Light Magazine before the data from the instrumentation networks was analyzed, but if the love people were feeling is any indication, our islands of coherence shifted the entire system — even if just a little bit. Global Coherence Pulse is an ongoing, free experience — please join us!

Claudia Welss is Chairman of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), a scientific research center and experiential discovery lab founded by Apollo 14 astronaut and 6th man to walk on the moon Capt. Edgar Mitchell, and is on the boards of HeartMath Institute’s Global Coherence Initiative and Space for Humanity. At NEXUS Global, she’s Founding Chair of the Invest in Yourself Working Group on personal and planetary transformation within a community of philanthropists, impact investors, social entrepreneurs and activists focused on world change. As a citizen scientist, Claudia co-founded the Global Coherence PULSE, a social + scientific collaboration in collective coherence for building and for observing how personal energetic coherence scales to social and planetary systems to help shift the current scientific paradigm. Claudia was director of the University of California, Berkeley Haas School‘s center for designing and delivering strategic learning programs for global corporations and leading the development of social responsibility and sustainability curriculum.

Triangles: World Service through the Power of Thought

By Dot Maver

Every Monday at 3 pm EDT a worldwide group of people join together to participate in a one hour meditative alignment in the support and strengthening of the planetary energy body, the etheric body of light that surrounds the planet. We lend this support through a simple daily spiritual practice in which three people agree to join together and visualize lines of lighted energy connecting them with each other. They then link their triangle with all the many thousands of other Triangles members throughout the world and together visualize the entire planet surrounded by a web of golden, interlocking energies. As these energies are circulated, the Great Invocation is sounded, a World Peace Prayer, releasing energies of Light, Love and Power into the atmosphere, infusing the planet with light and goodwill. Through this means we help foster right human relations and peace on the planet.

Each week following our meditation we have a presentation from a co-worker. On Monday, September 21st the International Day of Peace, we are delighted to have Dot Maver as our guest. Dot will be sharing about the theme of the International Day of Peace: Shaping Peace Together.

Please join us: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ uJYodeqhrDwiaSMLyvMZDAOjcY_MmTf7xQ

Dot Maver is an educator and peacebuilder whose keynote is Inspire Cooperation on Behalf of the Common Good. She is a co-founder of the Global Silent Minute, National Peace Academy USA, River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding, Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace, and co-author of Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom.

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CIRCLE SEVEN THE BIG PICTURE

We envision the whole to support sustainability, prosperity, and global transformation.

Excerpt from

The Way of the Social Artist

By Jean Houston

Worldwide, societies are crying for help with the needed transformation of their citizens, organizations, and institutions. We need new ways of looking at leadership, new methods of supporting need new ways of looking at leadership, new methods of supporting human beings to serve humanity. In the turmoil of too-rapid change, an extraordinary light has arisen.

Unique factors in human history are poised to help us become more than we thought we ever could be. We glimpse in our time the possibility of a planetary society heralding the end of ancient enmities and the birth of new ways of using our common humanity and its various cultures. In fact, we will need a gathering of the potential of the whole human race and the particular genius of every culture if we are going to survive our time. I have spent close to sixty years studying the nature of the human potential and about fifty years studying cultural potentials and harvesting them for use in education, health care, social welfare, personal growth, work, art, and creativity. I have found that challenges that arise in one culture can often be met by applying strategies developed in another.

We exist in a time in which the world mind is taking a walk with itself.

The emerging ecology of minds and psyches, our ability to dream each other’s dreams and experience each other’s biographies are part of the interpenetrating wave of the current time, psyche, and memory.

We are being rescaled to planetary proportions as we become resonant and intimate with our own depths. It is a world in which densely interconnected communication networks of people who cherish their communities and care deeply about life on this planet are creating something never seen before: a higher level of governance. Earth herself is becoming a vast teaching-learning community, a new order of democratic biology, as individuals and groups learn and create together a new arena for social evolution.

The Need for Social Artists We must begin to help people, citizens and leaders alike, to bring a new mind to bear upon personal and social change. In this way it is hoped that we can rise to the challenge of our times and ferry ourselves across the unknown abyss that separates a dying era from one being born.

This is a tremendous change, but once it is in full flower the world will have turned a corner. In the new world that lies just ahead, all individual skills and fresh solutions will be needed to face the perils and harvest the promise of a technology and media-driven world. People and ideas are fast becoming interconnected in ways that create a new environment— virtually a new world mind. For the first time in human history, we will harvest of the genius of the human race.

The social artist is one who brings the focus, perspective, skill training, tireless dedication, and fresh vision of the artist to the social arena.

Thus, the social artist’s medium is the human community. They seek innovative solutions to troubling conditions, as a life-long learner ever hungry for insights, skills, imaginative ideas, and deeper understanding of present-day issues. Above all, the social artist is always extending their own as well as helping others extend their human capacities in the light of social complexity.

As to human potential, we are coded with potentials, few of which we ever learn to use. In this time of whole-system transition we can no longer afford to live as half-light versions of ourselves. The complexity of our time requires greater and wiser use of our capacities, a rich playing of the instrument we have been given. The world can thrive only if we can grow. We can only create this possible society if people learn to be the possible humans we are meant to be.

This will involve helping cultures and organizations move from dominance by one economic culture or group to circular investedness, sharing, and partnership. It will involve putting economics back as a satellite to the soul of culture rather than having the soul of culture as satellite to economics. It will involve deep listening past the habits of cruelty of crushed and humiliated people. It will involve a stride of soul that will challenge the very canons of our human condition. It will require that we become evolutionary partners with each other.

Jean Houston, PhD, is a scholar and researcher in human capacities. For the past forty years (with her husband Dr. Robert Masters until his death), she codirected the Foundation for Mind Research in New York City and Ashland, Oregon, focusing on understanding latent human abilities. The author of some twenty-six books, she is also a senior United Nations consultant in human development and the founder of a program of cross-cultural mythic and spiritual studies dedicated to empowering change agents. jeanhouston.com 69

MORE FROM THE BIG PICTURE Excerpt from

Chapter 35 – A Holistic Vision of Evolution and Consciousness

By Robert Atkinson

Every spiritual epoch has its own Ten Commandments, or Beatitudes, that characterize the essence of spiritual truth for that time, or the spirit of that age. The distinguishing principle, or central theme, of our time is that humanity is one family.

All the world’s religious and spiritual traditions share the vision of peace on Earth. Principles that can guide us all toward this vision are coming into clearer focus. Across many centuries of the evolution of consciousness, we understand better today that unity, wholeness, and interdependence make up the foundation upon which this vision must be built. Also required is a framework consisting of: equality between women and men; balance between wealth and poverty; harmony between science and spirituality; freedom from all forms of prejudice; justice that is unitive, not punitive; truth that is independently discovered; education that is universal; and, nature that is protected as a divine trust.

These unifying principles are so interdependently tied together that each one is a prerequisite to fulfilling the age-old vision of peace on Earth. We can assist this process of global transformation already underway by applying the spiritual principle most closely aligned with a particular social need of our time.

Click here for bio on Robert Atkinson

Excerpt from

Chapter 36 – Reasoning and Experiencing Our Way to Oneness

By Ervin Laszlo

The scientific method and a spiritual experience can both lead to the same conclusion. The spiritual experience of sensing oneness with others can produce the same insight as reasoning, or even experimenting, through science. Through different methods, both agree on a fundamental interconnection between ourselves, other people, other forms of life, the biosphere, and ultimately, the universe.

Science and spirituality, far from being conflicting, mutually exclusive elements, are complementary partners in the search for the path that will enable humanity to recover its oneness with the world. Science demonstrates the urgent and objective need for it; spirituality testifies to its inherent value and supreme desirability.

We can reason to our oneness in the world, and we can experience our oneness with the world. Following a path of both reason and experience will take us down the evolutionary trajectory oriented to feeling, healing, and consciousness.

We are moving further along the higher evolutionary trajectory, founded upon understanding, empathy, and cooperation, that on local, national, and global accords will create alternative social and ecological structures resulting in a flourishing world.

Click here for bio on Ervin Laszlo

Excerpt from

Chapter 37 – A Synergistic Convergence of the Whole

by Barbara Marx Hubbard

Here’s my vision for cocreating a new Earth: small group SYNCONs form worldwide from different cultures and backgrounds to express their goals, needs, and what gifts they want to give to others. These local groups avail themselves of the evolutionary leaders’ (and other teachers’ and philosophers’) resources who can guide this process as the groups carry out their needed consultations, through online resources and public presentations. As this social synergy process unfolds in groups, amazing synthesis, synchronicities, breakthroughs, and revelations occur. This leads eventually and ultimately to a grand global synergistic convergence that synergizes the integration of our separate parts into a greater whole.

If this were to happen in the next five years, it could become a vital component of humanity’s next step toward the highest point of its conscious evolution.

Click here for bio on Barbara Marx Hubbard

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THE BIG PICTURE MOVES TOWARD GLOBAL ONENESS EVENTS & INITIATIVES

THE

2020 GLOBAL ONENESS SUMMIT

By Steve Farrell

Join Humanity’s Team for The Power of Love: Resetting Humanity to a New way of Living on the Earth, the 11th Annual Global Oneness Day Summit Celebration October 17th - 24th.

To kick off the weeklong celebration, there will be a brand-new annual event called “International Shout Out Love Day” on Saturday the 17th.

This will be a kind of “Horton Hears a Who” moment for the world, where people across the planet will go outside at Noon and/or Midnight Eastern Time and shout the word LOVE at the sky as a much-needed global show of unity and connection.

Eight days of free programming will follow this event bringing in celebrated leaders, activists, and healers. The summit is devoted to creating planetary awakening and flourishing during our generation.

Those who join the Global Oneness Summit Celebration will also receive complimentary access to attend a free video series with one of the most respected spiritual icons of our time, and be offered an opportunity to participate in her transformative Masterclass program that will provide additional support for those on the conscious journey who seek to embody unity consciousness and together create a new future for humanity and the Earth.

Some of the organizations partnering with Humanity’s Team to extend the reach and impact of this year’s Summit include Light on Light Publications, SINE Network, Ubiquity University, Humanity Rising, Unify, UNITY EARTH, The Institute of Noetic Sciences, Panacea Community, and Green Heart International.

Confirmed speakers for the Summit include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Marianne Williamson, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Gregg Braden, Gary Zukav, Anita Moorjani, Lynne McTaggart, Bruce H. Lipton, Panache Desai, Neale Donald Walsch, Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, Mark Nepo, Sue Morter, Riane Eisler, Claudia Weiss, David Korten, Diane Williams, Karen Noé, Phil Lane, Jr., Debra Poneman, Lisa Garr, Dr. Joan Borysenko, David Sloan-Wilson, Terry Patten, Kurt Johnson, Nathan Crane, Brian Christopher Hamilton, Suzanne Hubbard, Patricia Ellsberg, Master Mingtong, Grandmother Flordemayo, Geraldine Ann Patrick Encina, Xiye Bastida, Jeff Genung, Ben Bowler, Jim Garrison, Adil Kassam, Emanuel Kuntzelman, Geraldine Patrick, Tim Noe, and Miranda Clendening and many others.

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The current chaos in our world being caused by Covid-19, the killing of George Floyd, and the abuse of people of color and the oppressed have brought us to a place of pause and deep reflection…

And while this is a good place to start, we’ve got substantial ground to cover if we are to pivot to a sustainable and flourishing way of living our lives moving forward.

We must move into a place where love instead of fear is the foundation for our thoughts and actions, and where we can fully embrace our Oneness with every breath we take.

“The Power of Love: Resetting Humanity to a New Way of Living on the Earth” isn’t just the theme for this year’s Global Oneness Summit. It’s a call to action, and an invitation to create true flourishing in the world.

Part of the choice of this theme stems from a desire to continue the forward momentum that was created by Marianne Williamson’s historic campaign to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, running on a platform of Love.

Marianne herself will be delivering a keynote speech during the Summit Celebration where she will share more about all she learned during her campaign.

Humanity’s Team and all of the summit organizers believe we’ve come to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pivot from an unconscious way of living to a conscious way of being in harmony with the Earth and one another, by focusing on our deeper, instinctive and loving nature.

Steve Farrell is co-founder and Worldwide Executive Director of Humanity’s Team, an international spiritual movement whose purpose is to communicate and demonstrate the timeless truth that We Are All One, with the Divine and all life – caring for each other and the world we share – so that people’s actions reflect this profound understanding within our generation. Humanity’s Team believes that living this truth is essential to resolving the most chronic and acute world challenges and vital to creating a flourishing world of peace, harmony, and happiness.

The non-profit organization presently has over 676,000 friends in over 150 countries, Some of their projects include Industry Leading Transformational Education Programs; Global Oneness Day — a day that Humanity’s Team created following its visit to the United Nations in May 2010; a Oneness Declaration; a year-round Living in Oneness summit; an annual Spiritual Leadership Award; a Conscious Business Declaration, Community Circle, prayer, meditation, and study programs; and a variety of other service projects focused on supporting the environment and helping people all over the world.

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One Planet Peace Forum Virtual Gathering September 25-27, 2020

By Robert Atkinson

One Planet Peace Forum (OPPF) is pleased to announce its inaugural interfaith, interdisciplinary gathering for building a culture of peace. Taking a holistic approach to peace making, OPPF calls upon all individuals, who may or may not consider themselves peacebuilders, from across the region, nation, and world to join us in practicing peace. Sponsored by the Abbey of Hope, an interfaith Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative (URI), and funded by generous grants from URI and the Maine Humanities Council, One Planet Peace Forum was created as an annual gathering to offer a universal platform for people of all spiritual and secular expressions to co-create solutions to the most challenging issues facing humanity today.

On Friday, 9/25, Saturday, 9/26, and Sunday, 9/27, from 3-5:30pm ET each day, the program will integrate short keynote talks, panels with discussion, contemplative practice, and sacred performance to create a safe place for collaboration toward addressing the needs of our time. By sharing and applying universal principles, values, and tools, such as truth telling and unitive justice, participants will find common ground through the promotion of interfaith and interdisciplinary dialogue and cooperative action.

Presenters for 2020 include: Audrey Kitagawa, Parliament of the World’s Religions; Rev. Victor Kazanjian, URI; Kurt Johnson, author, The Coming Interspiritual Age; Layli Miller Muro, Tahirih Justice Center; Swami Tyagananda, Vedanta Society of Boston; Philip Hellmich, The Shift Network; Dot Maver, National Peace Academy; Phil Goldberg, author, American Veda; Mohammad Al Samawi, author, The Fox Hunt: A Refugee’s Memoir; William Smith, National Center for Race Amity; Ben Bowler, UNITY EARTH; David Ragland, Truth Telling Project; Robert Shetterly, painter and founder of Americans Who Tell the Truth; Kristin Hoffmann, Bella Gaia; Brother David Steindl-Rast, Network for Grateful Living; David Nicol, Gaiafield Project; Pihcintu Girls Choir; Rev. Todd Glacy, Sacred Sound; and, Dances of Universal Peace.

Everyone is invited to join with all of our partners – The Good of the Whole; UNITY EARTH; We, the World; The Source of Synergy Foundation; The Shift Network; National Peace Academy; Chaplaincy Institute of Maine; Friends Forever International; Seacoast Peace Academy; Greater Concord Interfaith Council; Ramakrishna Vedanta Society; and, the National Center for Race Amity - to help make this online gathering a lasting contribution to global harmony.

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One Planet Peace Forum emerged out of the commitment of the Abbey of Hope to bring people of diverse traditions together to promote interfaith understanding through shared experience leading to action steps that cultivate harmony, justice, unity and peace across traditions. OPPF shares the perspective of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, as stated in their Declaration, A Global Ethic, “We consider humankind our family… We commit ourselves to a culture of non-violence, justice, and peace… to make a just and peaceful world, we much first change the consciousness of individuals…” To this end, the theme of this year’s virtual gathering is “Building the Future We Envision.”

One Planet Peace Forum is working to help fulfill the age-old vision of peace on Earth by: offering a virtual and in-person universal platform for an integrated approach to global peace; seeking to live by unifying principles and values that will transform human relationships on all levels and our relationship to Earth; and, actively contributing toward building a culture of peace by practicing peace. This is understood as a process that will evolve gradually through stages over time, with setbacks and breakthroughs, yet always moving toward greater levels of coherence and cooperation, as humanity itself comes into its own stage of maturity during this process. The mission of OPPF is to inspire cooperative action toward building the future envisioned by the world’s spiritual and wisdom traditions.

We invite you to register for the September 25-27 virtual Forum by visiting: http://oneplanetpeaceforum.org/register Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., author, educator, and developmental psychologist, is an internationally recognized authority on life story interviewing, a pioneer in the techniques of personal mythmaking and soul-making, and is deeply committed to the global movement of our time - building a culture of oneness. He is a co-editor of the Evolutionary Leaders new book Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future (www.ourmomentofchoice.com). His other books include The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness (2017) which was called “…A must-read by the widest of global audiences…” by Michael Bernard Beckwith, and Larry Dossey said of it, “Consider Atkinson’s book as a survival manual, and spread it as widely as possible.” Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Your Soul’s Story (2012) is seen as “an exquisite exploration of the spiritual craft of soul-making” by Jean Houston. He has also assisted Babatunde Olatunji with his autobiography, The Beat of My Drum (2005). He sailed with Pete Seeger on the maiden voyage of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and met Joseph Campbell at one of his Cooper Union talks. As key mentors, their supportive relationships are central to his memoir, Year of Living Deeply: A Memoir of 1969 (50th anniversary edition, 2019). He is professor emeritus at the University of Southern Maine, and the director of Story Commons. www.RobertAtkinson.net

Our Moment of Choice from the Epilogue Excerpt from

Epilogue – Connecting the Threads of a Call to Collective Action

By Robert Atkinson and Kurt Johnson

We see great hope on the horizon. Our call to conscious evolution is designed to help us all co-create the future we envision. The very nature of the evolution of consciousness gives us an abiding hope for the future.

The threads woven throughout the seven circles of this book—though each is critical in its own right—are all of one cloth, and all of one goal, leading us to an understanding of our unity, our inherent wholeness, not only as a species but also as part of Creation. These are all the common threads to our collective well-being. It is up to each of us to carry out our own individual call to action, which makes us all part of the collective action needed. We are all the weavers of one tapestry. To live this wholeness out in every way of every moment of our lives is how we will live into the story of our collective fulfillment.

Click here for bio on Robert Atkinson Click here for bio on Kurt Johnson 74

CLOSING Excerpt from

A LETTER FOR THE FUTURE the Afterword to Our Moment of Choice Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD

Dearest Isa, I write this letter to you, my newest and fifth great-grandchild, as a new decade is born and you, still newly on your feet, run to embrace life with open arms and bright, joy-filled, eagerly inquisitive eyes. You take me back to seeing your gram as my own baby girl, running to my open arms with the same delight. Or sometimes I leap ahead, imagining yourself at my age now, when yet another new century is already under way! I can only guess what it will be like when you look back on your own life, but I’m quite sure you will have lived through the greatest transformation in all of human history. I see you reading this letter when you are sixteen and I would be one hundred—this ’20s decade past and I no longer here. You have cross-cultural Asian, African, and European genes in your body and will naturally live your life free of prejudice as you grow up on an earth so very different from the one on which I did.

From my vantage point as an evolutionary biologist and futurist, the transmutation of energy from anger and hate to love, from war to peace, from fierce competition to caring collaboration is a matter of the maturation I described, of our growing up as a human species. From my youth to yours—a single lifetime—we humans careened from tri­pling our global population to having the brakes put on our reckless expansion, from reaching the heights of competitive adolescent spe­cies craziness to waking up to see we can and must shift quickly into cooperative maturity.

I thrill to what your generation will build on such foundational efforts. You have the power to carry survivors through to the light beyond this great storm. I see you bringing yourselves and your children to safe shores where you reweave the broken strands of life to build what my generation could only envision.

The ancient Greeks named natural science philos-sophia, meaning “lover of wisdom,” or “one who learns from Nature.” Every ancient indigenous society did that naturally, and some have survived. Recognizing this, and recalling my childhood in unspoiled nature, I was drawn to learning as much from indigenous peoples as I was studying science in universities. Possibly the most important thing I learned from them was from a beautiful Amazon Indian whom I asked to teach me how to talk with plants and animals in the rain forest. “Oh, Elisabet,” he said, “they have been in conversation as long as this forest has existed. Your job is not to talk to them, but to listen . . . to hear them.”

The wondrous thing about communion is that there is no need for any translation as the same system is there for all. Nothing in Nature except humans has ever tried to get along without it! That is why we have strayed so far. I hope you will one day come to love and honor and befriend trees, as I do. Some of the other authors of this book and I belong to a “Silver Clan.” In honoring the moon, we call ourselves Loominaries, and we coined the word spinnergizing to represent the making of the threads needed to reweave the broken fabric of Earth’s systems. I hold your hand in Love and Light as you and yours spinnergize, continuing the work of navigating through crises to build caring communities for all life.

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris is an evolution biologist, futurist, author and speaker. With a post-doc at the American Museum of Natural History, she taught at MIT and the University of Massachusetts, contributed to the NOVA-Horizon TV series, is a fellow of the World Business Academy and a member of the World Wisdom Council. Her venues include The World Bank, UN, Boeing, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, S. African Rand Bank, Caux Round Table, Tokyo International Forum, Australian, New Zealand and Netherlands Governments, Sao Paulo business schools and State of the World Forums. Author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution; A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us; and Biology Revisioned with Willis Harman. www.sahtouris.com

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